


XCOM2 - Legacy log compilation

by OddXCOMarchive



Series: WotC Odd RP Logs season 4 [1]
Category: XCOM (Video Games) & Related Fandoms
Genre: Gen
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-12-29
Updated: 2018-12-30
Packaged: 2019-09-29 19:04:00
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Major Character Death
Chapters: 5
Words: 26,277
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/17209178
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/OddXCOMarchive/pseuds/OddXCOMarchive





	1. Preface

Preface and Author list:

XCOM2's The Legacy Pack (TLP) expansion was released on October 2018 and acts as a prelude to the events of XCOM2: War of the Chosen. This multi-chapter fanfic and others like it uploaded to this account are the collaborative works of multiple authors who are fans of ChristopherOdd, a Canadian youtuber and streamer who specializes in story-rich games; especially the XCOM series. His playthrough of TLP is also a prelude to the events of his fourth season of XCOM2: War of the Chosen. The playlist for this campaign and link to Discord can be found here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GilUCtOmUZs&index=2&t=0s&list=PLj_Goi54wf0cCVVw-apYxaVJrCrwxxcL8

Typically, supporters on his Discord channel submit custom soldiers to character pools for each XCOM2 campaign. However, TLP characters are a mixture of canon (eg. John 'Central' Bradford) and pre-set characters created by Firaxis, which are treated as canon for the purposes of this season. If slain, they are automatically replaced by another character of the same class and abilities. The TLP and non-soldier characters in this work are treated as having lore continuity into the XCOM2 campaign proper, with several surviving on as noncombatants. Instead of writing for custom characters, authors 'adopted' TLP soldiers and wrote for them in addition to writing Advent logs.

The following is a list of all characters whose logs appear in this series. Writers' names are in parantheses.

Bao 'Peacock' Zeng - Sharpshooter (Argent)  
Karla 'Lobo' Hernandez - Skirmisher (flashstriker97)  
John 'Central' Bradford - Central Officer (Suggestiveartefacts)  
Darrell 'Rusty' Rutherford - Grenadier (ThePrinceKing)  
Ethan 'Ace' White - Firestorm pilot (Hootie)  
Florian 'Flowers' Bernard - Sharpshooter (Kittyspam)  
multiple Advent officers and Advent-aligned humans - twinodoom  
Advent Commander Zeil - Hootie

Edited by: Damon Nightshade and Suggestiveartifacts


	2. Blast from the Past

—MICHAEL MORRISON, MEGAPOL SECURITY CEO—

The war is over. XCOM has lost their main base, and their Commander has been captured. And with that, comes a significant loss of business. The alien technology they sold us was invaluable. Humanity has almost completely surrendered to the alien forces. There's still a number of surviving XCOM veterans running around, but nothing that can pose a credible threat to the aliens. More importantly, there's nothing that we can profitably support. I've been forced to make offers to the aliens to assist them in suppressing the Resistance movement. Aiding what remains of XCOM is not only illegal but unprofitable. At least, Megapol might be able to profit off of the last few moments of the war.

—END LOG—  
\---------------------------------------------------------------

—MICHAEL MORRISON, MEGAPOL SECURITY CEO—

Business negotiations with the aliens have been successful. We've already begun arming their peacekeepers. When ADVENT deploys their new peacekeepers, they will not be disappointed. They have access to weapons we've been trying to convince XCOM to purchase from us for years. XCOM always preferred to use their own weapons, but at least their contributions to the Grey Market was useful. Now, the Grey Market is dead and we were forced to help shut down any Resistance as quickly as possible. But at least, things should be over soon. So far, there's only been a few riots where our weapons were necessary, and little more than our stun batons have been used on civilians. The aliens seem to be personally handling the hunt for more dangerous individuals, but it's not impossible for us to see ADVENT's peacekeepers redirected towards them in the future. But I doubt we'll see anything serious enough to demand the use of the MECs. Still, they went as far as to have us mass-produce improved versions of the alien Sectopod. But we're still getting paid by the governments they've assumed control of, so I suppose they don't have much more concern over the costs than we do. Turning armageddon into gold. That's is what good business looks like.

—END LOG—  
\-----------------------------------------------------------------------------

—MICHAEL MORRISON, MEGAPOL SECURITY CEO—

ADVENT seems to be very fond of overkill. Any opposition of their authority is countered with brutal force. But somehow, ADVENT suffered casualties during an encounter with civilians. For unknown reasons, there were explosives found in the area, including an armed proximity explosive found in the area. There are also reports of XCOM Central Officer Bradford being sighted in the area. XCOM may be more functional than I had thought. But now ADVENT is sending the Sectopod their way. I pity anyone near that thing when it arrives.

—END LOG—  
\-----------------------------------------------------------------------------

—MICHAEL MORRISON, MEGAPOL SECURITY CEO—

The rumors of John Bradford’s actions seem to be spreading. But to my knowledge, XCOM is dead, and he has no authority to continue fighting. Those who follow him are criminals and terrorists. But if their movement expands, we could see a war. War means profits. But that assumes they survive long enough to grow into a threat.

—END LOG—  
\-----------------------------------------------------------------------------

—MICHAEL MORRISON, MEGAPOL SECURITY CEO—

I'm interested to know who's supplying Bradford with so many explosives. They bombed a local police station ADVENT had been attempting to commandeer as a base of operations. Reports say that the explosives took out the Sectopod, which was in the area. A number of civilians were also caught in the explosions. ADVENT's been posting propaganda painting Bradford as a terrorist. Recruitment posters are being placed around the world, hoping to produce an army. I'm being paid to make sure that their army is better armed than Bradford's people. ADVENT doesn't know how many of them are out there, but they hope to suppress this rebellion before it grows. Bradford has gained ADVENT's undivided attention. I heard rumors that they are sending some kind of Assassin after him. But my deal only makes me a mid-level ADVENT associate. I mean, I get free protection from some of their soldiers, but I'm not someone who knows anything outside of how much money goes into their basic weaponry and where they keep some of their supplies stockpiled. If this Assassin exists, I have nothing to do with it.

—END LOG—  
\---------------------------------------------------------------------------------

—MICHAEL MORRISON MEGAPOL SECURITY CEO—

The Aliens are pushing people into city areas. Supposedly, it makes it easier to protect them from Bradford's extremists. Ironically, it seems to be making it easier for Bradford and his people to hide. A massive number of people have been reportedly moving away from Civilization. ADVENT is reminding the public that this is outlaw behavior, and ADVENT cannot protect them if they choose to leave. ADVENT also seems to be growing into the face of the Aliens operations. Before, they used a number of human collaborators, not unlike myself, to communicate with the public. Mostly Government officials wanting to hold onto some power after the Aliens' takeover. They're still around, but I don't know what their lives are like. I used to joke about politicians being powerless except for when it's inconvenient for everyone else, but they may actually have no power here, now that their usefulness is fading. I hope my usefulness doesn't run out within my lifetime.

I reached out to an old contact from the Grey Market. She's been working for a Black Market on alien tech. I suppose this is her way of adapting to the changes. Apparently, ADVENT lost a few unique weapons to Bradford. She found some kind of advanced Shotgun that he left behind. It's unlike anything she's seen before. She planned to sell it, but the Aliens managed to steal it back before she could. I suspect this weapon may be connected to the rumors of the Alien Assassin, but I don't have enough information to prove it. But now I'm wondering what the aliens are using more advanced tech than they give to their regular grunts for.

—END LOG—  
\----------------------------------------------------------------------

—MICHAEL MORRISON, MEGAPOL SECURITY CEO—

The Aliens lost control of a dam. Bradford and his team fought through the area. They used specialized ammunition to take down the Sectopod. ADVENT lost control of the area shortly later, as they were attacked by the growing faction of Resistance, inspired by Bradford's actions. Resistance cells are appearing across the globe, attempting to fight off ADVENT. Now, I just need to find a way to keep them alive without ADVENT discovering my actions. They can't win the war today, but in the future, there may be an opportunity to defeat the aliens. We just need to survive long enough to take it.

—END LOG—


	3. It Came From the Sea

—ADVENT OFFICER AMON BOKTOA—

I was ordered to remain behind during an attack investigate a problem with the Chrysalids. Something has been drawing them away from their nests prematurely, leading them to a town we had just assaulted. My team encountered XCOM Veteran John Bradford. I fired on him, but a drone somehow protected him. A Priest used its Psionic powers in an attempt to protect me, but another Psionic killed him. Our link was broken and overloaded my neural implants. When I regained consciousness, the Bradford and his allies had vanished. The rest of my team was killed. Bradford also killed many of the Chrysalids. More than we had originally found in the area. I am awaiting new orders.

—END TRANSMISSION—  
\-----------------------------------------------------------------------------  
*Resistance Recording, Log 1 - Date: [REDACTED]*  
Operative Bao -Bae- "Peacock" Zeng

...well, I'm not complaining about being a 'Resistance' Hero, but it looks like it's going to take a while to get used to everyone trying to change my callsign. One of the many 'luxuries' of the post-alien-world - you have to jump from place to place, never knowing what tall tale you'll hear about a wandering soldier next, and next thing you know, you are the ta-

_A coarse voice grumbles "Hey, Bao, Peacock wasn't exactly the most badass choice either, you know" followed by Bao yelling "Bì zuǐ, Daryl, I didn't pick my Triad name either!"_

Anyway, for anyone that's wondering where Bradford is when they get back (that means you, Sofia - get 8 hours of sleep next time you're back at the Haven. We don't need our doc nodding off when this base inevitably gets busted and we have to go on the run again) - he seems to have hit his head one too many times after that last battle with the juiced-up ADVENT elite troopers we'd fought while liberating the last town's dam. Lately, the guy's been giving us hints of crazy talk about making a "real" resistance, something that would actually put a dent in ADVENT's obsession with denying us decent toilets, six packs of beer, and I don't know, the human right to not be treated like cattle.

_spits_

He sounds just like Shaojie did before the Aliens bombarded Hong Kong for three whole weeks. I don't know if that "EXALT" group the Triad tried to ally with managed to get anything done, but from their current lack of existence, I doubt they fared any better than whatever the SEALS tried to do. (That's gotta be who Bradford was, right? Granted, he doesn't look like a suits guy...maybe one of those air controllers for the air force, puke-green sweater and all? Or maybe that's the point. He doesn't look the type, so he's a perfect pick for black ops.)

Speaking of 'black ops', our first mission was essential to scout ahead for Bradford's new group of stragglers, making sure the shithole we're currently holed in is the right Haven to start a radio network in (Surprise: It wasn't.). If nothing else, I think he's got the right idea - if we're really going to start taking on more people, we're going to need good comms equipment and the gearheads to maintain them. After all the "Chrysalids" we've been killing today, though, I just hope that DJ's "snake tail juice" obsession doesn't' extend to giant crocodile spiders, either.

_"Hey, Zeng! Need you up on the front - Campbell's still recovering from that leg fracture in the last skirmish."_

Alright, 'Central', you're the boss while you can still skewer two of those things with one grenade. Pass our new radio to Lewis or something, I'd hate for it to be the first thing that breaks in our new ragtag company.  
\-------------------------------------------------------------------------------

\-------------------------------------------------------------------------------

—ADVENT GENERAL DRASK BARTA—

Amon Bokota, we have received your transmission. Communications with your commanding officer are being disrupted, and we have lost contact with most of the troops near your position. Your new orders are to investigate the cause of the disruption and report back to us. You are promoted to Field Commander and authorized to redirect any of our missing soldiers you encounter to assist you. Be warned, the area may still be under the control of enemy forces. We have also received reports of ADVENT traitors in the area, so you should be wary of everyone you encounter. Your mission is not to engage enemy forces. Provide as much recon as possible and report back to us.

—END TRANSMISSION—

\--------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Resistance Recording, Log 2 - Date: [REDACTED]  
Operative Bao ~~Bae~~ "Peacock" Zeng

_static and several 'crunches' can be heard until Bao's voice flickers back in on the radio_

他妈的! (F***!) Of course, the radio breaks right after our Radiohead dies. Next, you'll be telling me to be that Hernandez really is a traitor and this whole long shot's a-

_She realizes what she's saying and sighs._

Nevermind, I...ugh. It's been really complicated, getting used to the idea of someone being mind controlled without any way to stop or counteract it. Had the radio been working before, you would've heard the whole argument I was giving to Rutherford about whether or not it makes the killer responsible. My view is best summed up like this: before mind control, there were drugs. Before drugs, there was simple blackmail. Before blackmail, there was using money and women with pretty faces.

The medium and the users may change, but every day, the world got closer to trying to figure out how to confiscate a human's free will from themselves, to create a living pawn in their war games while they sat back on their cushy thrones treating the world as a board. The aliens simply beat us to perfect it, and I'm currently trying not to think about how the underworld's going to look in the off chance Bradford's 'resistance movement' really does accumulate enough people and dethrone them. The laws of war will have to be completely rewritten, and the definition of weapon will never be the same again.

After all, is a 'human' still really a human if they're just being used for the gun in their hand? There is no worry about whether they will ask for more pay or hesitate for morals - you simply tell the psi 'gifted' hitman next to you, "Make him pull the trigger", and walk away with two layers of smokescreen behind you, just like that. Maybe more, if you're the psi-gifted one.

In any case, despite my...agitated state, I am not interested in holding a grudge against Hernandez for Lewis's death, regardless of the tensions within the rest of the squad. We need every gun we can get, and without the means to combat total mind control, that simply means all we can do is kill the aliens faster. And we're going to need to be faster if we're really following Bradford's airheaded idea to the end because from the looks of it the alien attack dogs are only getting bigger, venomous, and greater in number.

Worst case scenario, it's a mass uprising of these clawed crocodiles. I've killed many for men and women in cushy chairs, but when it comes to these beasts, I suspect they're only interested in one form of payment - our lives.  
\-----------------------------------------------------------------------

Karla "Lobo" Hernandez - "Corrections of Bradford's drunken tales 1":

Bradford has a tendency to embellish his stories somewhat, so I thought I would set the record straight on what actually happened. Unfortunately for me, he told this one a little too well. It was true - when we arrived, there was an ADVENT/Alien patrol sweeping the area, along with the 'bugs'. We rescued as many Civilians as we could before ADVENT broke down the door. Once we'd cleared up the first group (the Purifier in that group is one of the few intelligent ones I think I've ever come across, in my time in both ADVENT and with the Skirmishers, but he was still a Bastardo), the second group caused us much more trouble. With how weak the bridge was, we didn't want to risk going on there with them, so we spread around our end and took shots at them. That was when it happened - The Sectoid took control away from me again. The feeling of being completely out of control of my actions... of feeling my limbs move without my consent... to watch, helpless, as I slew a Civilian... and as my bullets flew, tipped red, impacting Martin as his face screwed up in pain... and as the Sectoid lost control, as I ran towards him only for his body to slump, falling over the cliff edge... I could have screamed out, but we had another job to fulfill. We had to leave him. For all I know, his rotten corpse is still out there, probably picked clean by now. It weighed heavy on me, is an easy way to put it. From there the mission was a blur, all I knew is we picked up some combat implants and recruited one of the survivors to accompany us in place of Lewis. Bradford must not have drunk much when telling this. I am done.  
\------------------------------------------------------------------------

John ‘Central’ Bradford  
I don’t know why I’m writing logs when XCOM is reduced to a homeless, leaderless shell of its former self. Maybe it’s the vain hope that someone will find my tablet after the chryssalids have picked my skeleton clean and this organization is nothing more than another conquest that Advent can boast about in their victory parades.

_The clink of a glass is heard._

Yet somehow *swallowing noise* we keep holding on. Just when I thought we had the slightest chance of survival, we lost a man. Michael Lewis was the first to die after the end; gone the way of hundreds before him when XCOM fell. At least the others got military funerals. So perhaps the purpose of this log is to remember him in some, small way. And Karla…as if it wasn’t bad enough that she killed a squadmate and a civilian on her very first mission, she’s a Skirmisher. *gulp clink* The tension in the squad was at boiling point. While I would have liked to spend more time comforting her immediately after the mission, I felt it was best to order her into solitary confinement in her room for a few days. For her own safety. 

Lewis rests now in the Resistance enclave he fought to save, retrieved and buried by the civilians he personally plucked from the jaws of death...well away from where I’ve squirreled Karla. His GREMLIN and gun were swiftly handed down to a new recruit – we can’t afford to waste them on romantic notions of laying him to rest in full battle order. 

I will bring Karla meals and old world movies to watch. At least none of the others would be in earshot when I remind her that shame and remorse are every bit as human as the Hispanic name and callsign she has chosen for herself. I have seen her gun down other Advent and aliens and know she is distraught at having betrayed us, even if it was under mind control. But I won’t lose another soldier to a lynch mob if I can help it.

\------------------------------------------------------------------------------------  
\------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

—ADVENT FIELD COMMANDER AMON BOKTOA—

Mission report: I have traced John Bradford’s movements through a nearby Resistance town. I carefully selected someone who wandered away from the group and interrogated him. He offered the information fairly easily, as he clearly was not conditioned to endure any form of torture, and was very fearful of death. His cooperation did not spare his life. Apparently, one of Bradford’s allies died defending them. The same one who prevented me from killing him during our encounter. 

After fighting off our forces, they went to the docks to investigate the disruption. My analysis suggests that Bradford destroyed a radio transmitter created using technology stolen from us. I would recommend we track the stolen technology back to the thieves and kill them as soon as possible. If the thieves align with the Resistance, they will gain the ability to run communications across the globe and act as a United threat against the Elders.

—END TRANSMISSION—

\----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------  
Resistance Recording, Log 3 - Date: [REDACTED]  
Operative Bao ~~Bae~~ "Peacock" Zeng

After 20 years, it's become evident the aliens still don't understand human boats. scoffs The first patrol was caught completely off guard by a wave rocking it as we overwhelmed it with raw firepower. 

The rest of the mission....well, it was pretty much the complete opposite of that. The Chrysalids had already been snacking down on innocents even before we'd gotten there, and pretty much all of us either have a hole in our armor or are doing our best not to vomit up the antidotes we somehow managed to get from the near Black Market depot. 

According to Bradford, the transmitter was alien tech, but the strange thing was it...apparently didn't belong to the same aliens that wrecked our damn planet. I caught him muttering about a "Terror from the Deep directive" and a "Vahlen" but he refused to budge on the truth at that time... (_a few sticky notes are added here: assembling them adds:_ "in hindsight, I don't blame him. If superpowered mutants have been developing on the bottom of the ocean all this time, maybe even the toothed crocodiles were running from something they couldn't eat.")

In the end, I'm just glad no one died. There must've been at least ten of those monsters in that nest, some fully grown, but whatever this "Deep beacon" was, our next objective as a....movement was clear. We had a potential techie to secure, a number of towns that could provide more manpower, and lots of alien structures that needed blowing up.

I just wonder how many of those beasts lie burrowed in between us and that united front.

=====  
Sometime in the year 2035, in the Avenger's bar 

"Whaleee, Commanderh, I dunh rememberh it taking dash long... _hic_. There wash likh....tenh, twelveh.... 'undred chrsyalidsh? An'way, I Blade-stormehd them alllll....aan' the lash one was cryin', "ALL MY BROTHERS ARE GONHHH"..."

The Commander can only look on and shake his head in mild amusement.  
\-----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Resistance Recording, Recovered Log 1 – Date: [REDACTED]  
User: Darrell Rutherford

_Soft sounds of waves, and some occasional creaks. Darrell’s hoarse voice soon breaks this up, the microphone evidently a bit too close to the user._

A boat… another goddamn boat… The hell we out here for Bradford, yeah? Some pleasure cruise afore we git chopped into bug bait? Or we get sunk by some other alien mutated shark thing? Who knows what could be out there now yeah? We barely had the ocean mapped out afore the aliens got here, and you can bet they’ve probably pulled some crazy shit more than just white weak bugs. 

_He weakly chuckles, but its abruptly cut short by a fit of dry retching._

Gah… 

_A spitting sound._

You ain’t takin’ my breakfast today you godforsaken…

_He coughs._

T’ah… People were always saying the coasts was the place to be, that’s where everything happened… Weren’t payin’ attention though, not enough anyways gah… Between Bradford’s swigs, the air, and the dead fish… Almost makes me puke even afore we git out on the water. The smell man, dunno how people take it. Like this radio fella, apparently going up the coast putting his transmitters everywhere. 

Bradford and most the others really get on his case; mean, not Bao, but that woman’s unflappable anyways. But alright, I get the guy though – nothin’ worse than working a crap job 8 hours a day and getting jack shit. And yeah, I know a burger joint isn’t the most intensive of jobs or requiring that much skill, and that I oughta getta real job, go to college and shit, blah blah blah. I don’t care, man, if ya don’t tell your people how ya want things done, how the fuck can you expect it to even be done yeah? 

Mean, I never had to serve people speakin’ gibberish… mean… ‘les some tourists lost on their way to like the Liberty Bell or some shit took a wrong turn or somethin’ HA! 

_A weak chuckle ensues. The recorder gets bumped, and Darrell’s voice suddenly sounds a bit farther away._

Gah shiiit… Now I gotta… Damn its cold right now… Shooo…t...

_There is some rustling, and eventually a loud crash._

D’aa… d’oh well, I’ll pick it up later. Now… back to it… Somethin’ ‘bout tourists…? 

_A momentary silence._

Hm… ah, whatever… Oh, wait, crazy shit, right. 

_His tone of voice lowers._

Well, not really crazy given what the world’s like now, but… whatever… Bao’s been giving this whole mind control thing a thought, like with everything – probably ‘cause people ‘ave been talking shit about Hernandez, me included I guess. Me not saying anythin’ for her must mean I’m against her I guess. 

_A sigh._

It's prickly, I get it. Here we are supposed to trust someone who has already betrayed someone else… And she killed another one of us, without hesitation, it looks like. Well, visible hesitation anyways. Wanted to give my two cents on it, honest, but seriously, sciencey shit comin’ from me? Ain’t nobody gonna believe that. 

Mean, it ain’t like full boar science, jus’ what I’ve seen. These Sectoids… sure they’re tougher and meaner than when they first came around, but also that means a lot better at getting at us. Mean, Hernandez she… mean, she ain’t like us, don’t get me wrong. Least… least not like a human. Tsh…

_His tone of voice strengthens._

Course not, ya fuckin’ idiot she’s an alien too! Big whoop! 

_Incomprehensible low mumbling ensues for a bit, concluded by a sigh. Darrell’s voice returns, a bit muted._

Look… she’s… I know she ain’t the life of the party per se, but… haven’t seen her around. Least she’d try an’ talk with us afore this shit… Look, she’s pretty much human in my book, an’ I feel like she ain’t secretly crossing someone offa hit list or somethin’… Jus… Look, she wouldn’t consciously kill one o’ us, K? There. 

Probably harder for her to resist it anyway, did say the Sectoids are tougher yeah? An’ she was on their side for a while. That’s what I see, its harder for her than the rest o’ us. 

_He chuckles weakly._

‘An here’s Bao bless ‘er goin’ off on this big ’ole philosophical thing – by the way, me jus’ curled up here like usual on the verge o’ puked my guts out – about some “history of traitors” shit; look she must’ve been a professor or some shit afore all this I dunno. Don’t see a regular person going nuts over this shit - aaaanyways, usual death stare, pointin’ a’ random shit, forgetting its an ‘e’ not an ‘i’ in my name, essentially jus’ lecturing me, an’ might as well had been back in High Schooo-oh-shit… I…

_A cough and Darrell’s voice has gotten considerably weaker._

No… faaa…

_Darrell’s voice gets fainter as the sounds of footsteps on metal start, the sound falling off with his voice. The footsteps eventually stop and actual retching ensues. Several minutes pass until the footsteps return. They conclude with a low report on metal followed by panting. Darrell does not sound much improved, his tone of voice only slightly less low._

Oh man… Jus… jus’ gonna sit ‘ere for a bit… yeah… 

_There is a long sigh, punctuated by a period of silence._

Yeah… imma jus’… jus’ take a nap… yeah… 

_The recording continues for several minutes in relative silence. Darrell’s raspy breathing, the low drone of a motor, and light wave action are all that can be heard._

[Recording Terminated: Inaction]  
\-------------------------------------------------------------------------

Karla "Lobo" Hernandez - "Corrections of Bradford's drunken tales 2”:

This mission was thankfully much easier than Bradford made out. While we did all take some bumps and bruises (In my case, that Chrysalid Poison running through my system... bicho repugnante), Bradford did not at all take down a hive of Chrysalids. All the Civilians he alleged got turned into “pimples” had already evacuated at the first sign of ADVENT. And there were no Codexes! We didn’t discover those things until the Skulljack was invented. And don’t get me started on us having some variant of ADVENT guns. Everyone knows touching them is a death sentence, even to my kind. 

I probably shouldn’t be so harsh on him. He’d been keeping me locked up in my cabin to prevent a mob demanding I leave from getting to me. He even fed me and gave me entertainment, some “old world” motion pictures. And he did reassure me... just not on what happened with Lewis. He knew I couldn’t get over that easily, and he thankfully didn’t try. 

TL;DR - Bradford did not take on a million and one Chrysalids, and we did not have access to advanced laser technology. Oh, and we definitely didn’t see Codexes!

\----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------  
\----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------  
—ADVENT GENERAL DRASK BARTA—

Commander Boktoa warned us of a threat to the Elders. Apparently, the humans have unintentionally discovered a means of disrupting our communications. I immediately ordered soldiers eliminate the humans responsible for disrupting of communications. Apparently, a human is testing out the technology to broadcast his pirate radio. Unfortunately, we can trace the technology back to him. He's simply broadcasting off of all our coms frequencies at once. The fool likely has no idea how the technology he is using works. I deployed troops to silence him. Since he boasted that we would never be able to break down his doors, I sent Mutons ahead to crush him. I also had some of our soldiers prepare for Bradford's impending arrival. Unfortunately, they failed to keep them back for long. The Mutons disobeyed orders and moved on Bradford's allies instead of focusing on the objective and eliminating their target. I ordered our forces to pull back, leaving on the Chrysalids and Faceless to cover our retreat. They made their retreat, but I suspect they'll return for the equipment. I have placed Field Commander Bokota in charge of the ambush I have planned for them when they return. 

—END LOG—  
\-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

John ‘Central’ Bradford

*gulp clink* Mission went well, but I don’t know whether I love this guy or hate him more. *gulp* But the squad deserves drinks and the big mouth and his two girlf-… guards are along for the ride. Dunno –hic- why he was sitting on a big pile of PCS chips but we made good use of them. All those chryssalids at the finish line made it dicey but not as much as the squad of berserkers…. There were berserkers…I remember. *clink* So anyway I chopped them up…

…no I didn’t chop them up, thanks for the correction, Leslie. You want another beer? Now I remember…it was about six, maybe eight chryssalids and maybe an Advent. But makes no difference now. Punk radio guy gets to live to make ears bleed another day. No regrets…*gulp*

…Except one. I shouldn’t be making promises after a few drinks. *shuffle clink* I agreed to let him play his channel for XCOM 24/7 once we finally got back ourselves a base and everything…not that it would ever happen, right?

*gulp*

\--------------------------------------------------------------------------------  
Karla "Lobo" Hernandez - "Corrections of Bradford's Drunken Tales 3":

Bradford was fairly realistic in this tale. Aside from us having lasers, almost everything he said was true. Including the part where he alerted all the mutons by hastily attacking at 'close range'. Surprised he cared to mention that. Also true is how much he was annoyed by the DJ. Most of us enjoyed his company, myself included (He had some fun questions about me, that’s for certain), but Bradford probably couldn't handle another chatterbox aside from him. I didn’t tell you that though.  
\--------------------------------------------------------------------------------  
\--------------------------------------------------------------------------------

—ADVENT FIELD COMMANDER AMON BOKTOA—

We spotted the human responsible for this disruption. He appeared to be traveling alone, but Bradford came to save him. The scouting force that spotted them distracted our enemies long enough for our other forces to prepare to intercept them when they approach the DJ’s equipment. I suspect they have an interest in acquiring the DJ’s radio. I also deployed fully grown chrysalids in the waters, which will keep them busy. It’s been set to activate momentarily. I prevented it from activating outside the local area, as the drawn in Chrysalids should overwhelm them quickly.

—END LOG—  
\--------------------------------------------------------------------------------  
Resistance Recording, Recovered Log 2 – Date: [REDACTED]  
User: Darrell Rutherford

_Aside from a few calls from seagulls and some general sounds of discussion far off, the recording starts off eerily quiet. There are sounds of the recorder getting jostled a bit. It ends abruptly, and just as such Darrell’s hoarse voice comes in, once again the recorder a bit too close._

“Yee, just… come on! Frickin’… dirt… an… god knows… fuck else…” 

_There is the sound of something relatively soft being banged against wood; after several hits, Darrell sighs._

“Aaah right, there we… go… yeah! Kinda stepped in some mud, then, well… stepped in one o’ those… those…” 

_He goes silent for a bit._

“Them pod things or whatever… was helpin’ move some of Jake’s crap an’ wasn’t lookin’ where I was goin’… Hernandez told me what they were and uh… how they… yeah, form. God damn…” 

_He sighs._

“So… yeah… something to ah, um… avoid yeah. Look, I’ve seen the bugs before in person, shot em up too. But didn’t see what happened when they actually got ya. Like… yeah, the current group has been hit by ‘em before and going by what Hernandez said, some got close to goin’ down. Meaning woulda become a… a… well, Bradford called ‘em frickin’ pimples…? Yeah, pimples, last night while he was downin’ another one. I swear that guy’s liver can’t last like another 10 years the rate he’s goin’ right now.” 

_He chuckles._

“Mean, not like he ‘as a huge tolerance for ‘em either; that or poor as hell – pretty sure he was hung over with the last op – he missed a fair few easy swipes with that sword o’ his. Like, I know that I couldn’t do that much better, but… seriously, man, coulda become a bug pincushion without that robot helpin’ ya out! An’ he’s leading the way too – how long till he frickin’ faceplants or somethin’ yeah? 

Tch, if Bradford does go down… don’t expect Jake ta lead the charge. Guy keeps going on and on about that back of his.”

 _A brief chuckle._  
“As if… yeah I know it sounds rich from a guy who’s skippin’ on the fightin’ for feelin’ like shit… but with him, come on man. I ain’t callin’ ‘im out, don’t get me wrong, that don’t mean I can’t… encourage ‘im… Nah, nah, just sayin’ at times that he oughta help carry his stuff and such. The thing for certain is that back of his ain’t preventin’ him from loungin’ while we were helping with the unpacking and such. He’s got a nice collection: digital and vinyl.” 

Hm, kinda took me back for a bit seein’ all that. Dad used ta try an’ collect em; could probably only manage to hit up Ed’s a couple times of the year, an’ he had a player to boot. Some beat up an’ battered thing from Uncle Marcus. An’ whenever he’d come back, he’d go straight for the thing, put somethin’ on, an’ have a dance with Mom and Judy… Better when like Sean an’ Grant were over – sometimes Dad would take us an’ when we’d come back everyone would get at it… yeah… Good times…”

_He sighs._

“Yeah… too bad there isn’t any power around; well, that we could use for setting up the player Jake has. Wonder what typa music the new guys like…? Granted, what everyone likes heh… didn’t have a way to play any for a long while, not that we had the time goin’ outta town. Speakin’ of which, ain’t it convenient ‘ow Bradford jus’ showed up decked out with ‘nades, military armor, shotgun, an’ a sweet ass sword yeah? I ain’t picked his brains ‘bout it at the time, granted haven’t asked him now. Just his business, right…? 

Tch, not like I thought so with talkin’ with Hernandez though. Yeah, before we saved Jake I ran across her while we were on the boat still docked at that camp where Lewis died. Was right though, Bradford had locked her up to ah… protect her from most everyone else… Was even having her food in there too heh. 

Seemed like she wanted someone to talk to though, so I stayed for a bit. Apparently, there’s a lot more Advent soldiers like her, ones who somehow broke free. They got these chips that control ‘em, like some… some… shoo, what’s the movie? Come on… Avengers…?” 

_He goes silent for a tiny bit._

“Nah… but anyways, some sci-fi shit goin’ on with that. And these chips are pretty big an’ noticeable too; I thought that Advent should just make everyone wear em’ but judging by the scar… yeah… No way they're getting passed off well.” 

_He chuckles._

“Think I cheered her up a bit then… and hey ever since we left that place Bradford is lettin’ her off the hook; seems like people are warming up to her again with these past couple o’ missions – sure she’s missed a few, can’t help it when the gun she has is a dinky lookin’ thing. Mean, I will admit that I have some trouble corralling my gun, but with her’s that thing its jumpin’ all ‘round and tiny to boot; probably can’t get a great grip on it most of the time. But still, people are seein’ the light, an’ that s’all good with me….” 

_There is an incomprehensible call from a distance._

“Wait… Yeah, what?” 

_The voice from afar repeats._

“Huh…? Sorry, ain’t hearin’ ya, I’ll be right over yeah!”

[Recording Terminated]  
\------------------------------------------------------------------------------------  
—ADVENT FIELD COMMANDER AMON BOKTOA—

Bradford is taking an unexpectedly long time to find the "Pirate DJ's" equipment. I left heavily armored troop placements to distract them. Even so, they should have made arrived here by now. I've moved most of our forces to guard the Transmitter the "Pirate DJ" sabotaged. I suspect they may be aware of that the equipment inactive and are moving towards the Transmitter as their next destination. I left some heavily armored forces behind in case they're simply being stalled by unforeseen conditions. If they haven't decided to abandon this mission entirely, we'll see them at one of the two locations. If they have proven themselves cowards and left once the DJ was recovered, then we will simply repair the Relay. I already copied the signal, and plan to request that High Command design a Chrysalid Lure for the purpose of overrunning Resistance Camps. It may prove to be a more useful weapon than the Lost.

—END LOG—  
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Resistance Recording, Log 4 - Date: [REDACTED]  
Operative Bao ~~Bae~~ "Peacock" Zeng

Who has a pair of tacky shades, a bizarre purple hairdo, and has a 50% chance to break any radio he touches? Our new DJ, that's who.

No, I don't mean Mostafa. "Goddess" at least sounds intimidating as a callsign, though I'd prefer picking a specific goddess. "Artemis" or "Amaterasu"......hm. That name brings back memories, to say the least. When the Chrysalids first invaded Japan, news stations all over the world had been dubbing it the "Kiryu Kai Disaster", after the private organization they had formed keep trying to combat aliens - a prototype XCOM, of sorts. Those that still remember the pre-War days liken it to the "Fourth Great Disaster of Japan" if my memory serves correctly, though I don't know if it's an insult or a legitimately terrifying comparison to compare them to beings of myth like Shuten Doji or Tamamo no Mae. 

After all, those gods and monsters were ones that we formed with human minds, giving them human traits to explain natural disasters or act out our worse fears, be they of death, the unknown, or other humans. Admittedly, I'm more pissed at the unknown right now than anything else. This is the second time someone's broken my radio and not having the knowledge to fix it leaves me feeling more helpless than any time I'm scouting or providing covering fire for our main force.

The situation on the front lines has been equally ominous, with less ADVENT being present the further we go in and more monster crocodiles spewing egg sacs into the civilians they've cannibalized days, maybe even hours ago. Our numbers have swelled with two hired guns that the DJ had brought along (read: actually useful people) but we've had to increase the night watch to three people a shift and pick up the pace. The stress is clearly getting to Bradford - he couldn't shoot for shit today and we all suspect he's burning through every hidden flask he's got in his pack faster than these beasts can spawn from the ocean. In his defense, though, I can't think of any alcoholic that manages to be the hell of a knife fighter that he is when drunk, doubly so when he's essentially shanking the Chrysalids at close range.

Based on the intel we've been given, though, we're pretty close to the main transmitter that has been a siren song for the aliens swarming this place. I've admittedly wondered where our little company will go after this is all over, but Bradford says he might know a good safehouse. I hope it's a big one, with the rate our group continues to grow.

P.S. - Nikita, stick to lightning bolts.

=====  
Back in 2035

"Anh I snahped them with mah SHOTHgun from a rooftttoph, Commanderh, wooooh! They couldn't have seen it cominh."

"Word on the street says you also missed over half your shots that day, Bradford."

"ah, Commanderh, y'u kno how it ish....daz xcomh, babee!"

\---------------------------------------------------------------------------------  
\---------------------------------------------------------------------------------  
Resistance Recording, Log 5 - Date: [REDACTED]  
Operative Bao ~~Bae~~ "Peacock" Zeng

I officially owe Rutherford five....bottlecaps over Nikita's success in developing shockwave Psi attacks. Still, gambling's a lot less fun when there's no actual currency (and thus, no risk) involved. She's claimed that the Psi-Operative remnants of XCOM, in general, have been trying to form a little resistance organization of their own - given the fact that we have three doing live fire testing right now with their own mind-powers, I wouldn't be too surprised. The resistance comms whisper of operatives with codenames like "Necromancer", "Void Specialist", "Warden", "Fortis Magi", "Esper" and much to Bradford's incredibly vague and unexplained shock, "Psi MEC", but until I see real signs of an organization's front forming, I'll keep my hopes in check.

chuckle

According to Sunny, there are some of those remnants who've started running around calling themselves 'Jedis' or "Biotics'. I can't tell if it's a defiant shout in the face of alien whitewashing or an attempt by those remnants to smile over something they used to love, but any sign that humanity is still kicking under the aliens' heels is a good one, I suppose.

Before I get caught up in hoping that Bradford's resistance movement will really start to go somewhere, though, I think it's wise to remind everyone that we just faced a giant hulking robot, one of the many that had ripped Earth armor to shreds, in the middle of nowhere. The Alien (radio?) Relay isn't far now - even from the DJ's boat, we could see it glowing in the distance, likely converting whatever trashy music he had planned to play into alien ciphers and telekinetic waves of some kind that attracted the hordes of Chrysalids here, to begin with.

Between that hulking monster and facing an ADVENT MEC out here (note to self - what does Bradford mean by "They stole our damn designs?"), it's pretty obvious that the aliens want their massive herding leash back, and they aren't going to give it up quietly. The black toothed crocodiles still seem to recognize ADVENT as their masters, so any hopes for a three-way war are unlikely at best - everyone that stands in between us and that monster of a relay now will have a gun or claw pointed at us as well.

On the other hand....talking out that Relay will likely severely cripple ADVENT's ability to coordinate within this region, making it a lot easier for Resistance Havens to take root. I wonder if this is what Bradford meant when he said he knew a good place for a base of operations, but judging from the way he looks at the place, I doubt it. These days, he's looking between the ground and the sky, muttering a lot about needing a good pilot.

Well, if we do perform a hit on an ADVENT ship, I can't say I'd be disappointed. It'd be the first big job I've had in at least ten years, maybe more.  
\---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------  
\---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Resistance Recording, Log 6 - Date: [REDACTED]  
Operative Bao ~~Bae~~ "Peacock" Zeng

An entire platoon of ADVENT lies dead at our feet today. Many more of their blackened hellhounds are probably lost or gone for good, thanks to the sheer amount of bombs Bradford strapped all over the area before we left.

But we lost Nikita today, and the likelihood of replacing her lightning firepower are slim to none. Bradford wasn't too familiar with her, but whoever he was talking with on the radio didn't seem as level-headed about it. There was a bit of a shouting match, something about "not sending you Templar Midnight", and "We have no idea how the hell Psi MEC even has Psi if he's really out there." 

...we didn't even have time to carry her body out there, what with the swarms of Chrysalids closing in. If nothing else, we practically guaranteed her a death by fire, and she will not suffer the fate of being some disgusting alien insect's birthing grounds.

_rubs her eyes and sighs, poking at the radio_

Bradford has started to tell us the truth, who he really is, and why his resistance movement won't just be any resistance movement. I think even Rutherford knew on some level that he wasn't just any old veteran when we all met up that day, with nothing more than a map and a bar we wanted to raid. Tempers went hot, aliens conveniently provided us an excuse to vent it all off - but Bradford, he kept his head cool, ran in front of us the whole time, and did his damndest best to make sure as many of us got out of every scrape alive and well as he could.

As far as I'm concerned, he's been doing a better job than this 'Commander' he speaks of like some god, but perhaps it would be wiser for me to reserve judgment until we meet him - if he's still alive, of course. Good grief, I'm agitated enough that I might be speaking ill of the dead.

For now, though, we don't need to worry about food, a place to sleep, or some ultimate tactician or scientist hidden in the deepest darkest corners of the underworld. What we need right now is manpower and guns; Bradford has deemed us all trustworthy enough to reveal that XCOM has secured a mostly intact alien ship among other things recently. The problem is, it's missing fuel, several engine parts, and god knows what else. We've got the engineers, the schedules, and even perhaps Hernandez to try her hand at being a double agent, but there's no way the 10 of us left could be everywhere at once - even less so if XCOM's main base is short a doctor and has to ground Bianchi's feet.

 

That's where Bradford's next step of the plan comes in - supposedly, there are are two contacts we may be able to reach out to as we head south through Old Canada, out of what used to be Newfoundland. One is merely a name - Otto Zander. Possibly our ''Psi MEC" man. Could be a dud, could be a delusional idiot, could really be one of XCOM's biggest former badasses. We'll have to find out ourselves.

The other...is far more enthusing, if you ask me. The bars and gunsmiths whisper of alien hunters - men and women who have abandoned as many of the trappings of civilization as they could, living off the wild and learning to hunt and kill aliens as they were no different than the big game animals of old. If the rumors are true, they're by far the most organized resistance cell, a mobile group that moves and strikes as one against the aliens - something the Psi Op splinter elements and the ADVENT defectors haven't really been able to claim they can do yet. Bradford suspects that they're due to rendezvous with a group of gunsmiths in the south of the Quebec resistance haven, and if we can even get some them interested...well, at best, we've combined a group of rogue engineers and scientists with a group of soldiers that could use the firepower. 

At worst, 15 men and women could mean the difference between striking out and spreading thin.  
\--------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

John ‘Central’ Bradford  
*Distant music can be heard in the background. Bradford inhales as if to begin speaking, but stops and the music goes on for a few more awkward seconds.*

We won. We took out some…some kind of transmitter down by the beach *gulp* guarded by literally everything Advent could throw at us. Funny thing is, I still don’t know if it was worth it. Our morale was high after two wildly successful missions. We partied hard just before, not because we thought we were winning this war, but with the desperation of men and women who were facing down impending doom. *clink gulp*

Maybe if we had abstained and were more clear-headed, Nikita would still be alive. Maybe it wouldn’t have mattered. Maybe she deserved that last hurrah before going to wherever it is Templars say they go when they die. At least we can say she had fun in her final days.

*The music dies down. Sensing Bradford’s mood, the DJ begins playing Elton John’s ‘Nikita’. John sighs heavily.*

Damn…am I the only one here old enough to remember that song on the radio? This squad of youngsters wouldn’t know much about the Berlin Wall, but I’m sure they’ll appreciate the tribute. *clink* When the Commander asks, I will tell him we lost the bravest soldier he never got to meet to overwhelming odds. I wonder if he’ll believe me when I say that she fell while facing down Avatars and Gatekeepers… and not because we made a tactical mistake and pushed too far.

But the music goes on and so must we. *gulp*…take the fight…to the Elders. For her as well…  
\----------------------------------------------------------------------------------


	4. Avenger Assemble

Resistance Recording, Log 7 - Date: [REDACTED]  
Operative Bao ~~Bae~~ "Peacock" Zeng

In hindsight, it was probably not a smart idea for us to try and meet with alien hunters while we were traveling with ADVENT defectors. Some of the men and women wanted to leave the moment they saw Hernandez's face, but Volk shouted them down and negotiations....happened. I can't exactly say they failed because Volk did lend us three of his own men to 'observe' XCOM, but they were far from anything Bradford had hoped for as well.

We have exactly thirteen combat capable soldiers right now, and that goes down to eleven with Bradford having to guard the base and Bianchi making sure we don't lose more people to any illnesses that are common in camps like these. (No, Amani, we can't have you using your Soulfire on waffles all day. You're needed on the front as much as the rest of us.) If I'm ever forced to congratulate ADVENT for anything, I'll take my hat off to them for trying to crush us in the slowest, agonizing way possible.

But we're not just a bunch of scattered humans anymore. We're forming resistance rings with names now. XCOM, Reapers, Templars...it reminds me of days long gone, when the enemy was the police and our own petty desires. I was just a woman looking to scrap my way to the top like many other hitmen out there. The aliens replace those slots in my familiar, placed routines, as I take out mayors with little scraps of Intel and occasionally extract a civilian looking to throw their lot in with our politicking. 

I'm actually somewhat amazed said politicking hasn't defeated us entirely by itself yet. From what I heard at the camp, today's mission to try and salvage some old military missiles was almost a disaster. Shen might be good with her eyes, but she's new to the battlefield and it shows - called Cohen "Bradford" three times as if looking for her mentor to calm her nerves and made decisions that looked good on a map but resulted in Amodee taking a stun lance to the gut. Cohen, is one of our greener recruits, was so shaky that he missed numerous shots, and his misfortune only went further when a straggling Sectoid forced him to wildly shoot at everyone in a last attempt to deny XCOM missiles for its craft. We're all still struggling to believe that a stray shell somehow managed to hit Amodee in the head just from sheer bad luck, but at the very least anyone that still whispers about Hernandez has finally shut up. I've said it before and I'll say it again - mind control has completely changed how we need to view the battlefield and those that take up arms alongside us.

Our new 'Skirmisher' (apparently that's what the Defectors have settled on as a unifying name), Boltos Dropei, is apparently en route to the camp as we speak - Hernandez says that the Megapol Security chip in his head suffered a malfunction and he ended up managing to stow away on XCOM's only flight-capable craft. It's apparently some kind of strange experimental alien/human hybrid prototype fighter named the 'Firestorm' that was never quite ready to deploy, and it probably says a lot about both XCOM's engineers and pilots that it even manages to still participate in supply raids after all these years. "Psi MEC" was a dead end for now, but if the Psi-Ops coalescing into the "Templars" is any indication, it seems pretty likely that all these mind sorcerers hiding in the backwoods are starting to seek each other out. 

People are crawling out of the woodwork day by day now that these little opportunities have started to present themselves. As is, we just need to give them more reasons to not fight amongst themselves.

\----------------------------------------------------------------------------  
—MEGAPOL SECURITY CEO MICHAEL MORRISON—

XCOM's Chief Engineer Shen is dead. He will be missed. But I can't spend much time mourning him. The chip ADVENT planted in my head checks in whenever it suspects something is wrong. I've created a few workarounds to allow me to aide XCOM. It mostly analyzes my biometrics and records some of my conversations. But it doesn't react to anything I read or write, and only reports people I make eye contact with. I've had to work through an agent whom I've codenamed "Hamburgler" in order to avoid keeping it tampered with for long enough for ADVENT to notice. Hamburgler is another conspirator against ADVENT who's found a way to contact Bradford, which many of us inside ADVENT's city centers have had difficulties with.

But Shen did leave me with something before he died. He wants me to watch over something he calls Project SPARK. Apparently, it's what he was using the MEC factory he "destroyed" for. The SPARK's should be smarter and stronger than the MECs. It's mostly automated by an AI he made, but I sent some engineers to inspect it and report back to me. It helps create a powerful army that may be useful in the coming war. As long as ADVENT does not discover it's true purpose, it should be allowed to continue construction of its forces for years.

—END LOG—  
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Resistance Recording, Recovered Log 3 – Date: [REDACTED]  
User: Darrell Rutherford

_There is a light clatter of a metal object. Darrell chuckles._

“Heh heh… that’s what you git for doubting our resident Jedi there Bao! Few more o’ these an’ I could buy myself a laser pistol or some shit – granted a really crappy version, an’ I’d have ta be in D.C., but still. Granted I could nip one from Leslie’s cache, dunno where she got it. But yeah, not really ma style either…

But yeah, the team went in an’ destroyed a big ‘ole relay on Jake’s boat; an’ good thing too, cause otherwise, apparently, more bugs then we could shake our fists at would have come. Things did get a bit tense as Advent was patrollin’ round the area, but somehow no one came back injured! 

But yeah, back to better stuff – so yeah, had a bet with Bao over Bedi bein’ able ta fry people even more with her mind heh. Look, the world’s gone crazy anyway, so I fully believe that these folks with these special mind powers can do… frickin’ whatever man. They’re even making up fancy names for themselves too; Jake calls em biotics, Amany is callin’ em witches an’ warlocks, and A’ve heard a couple callin’ Bedi a Jedi what with her blade thingies – hey, that works for me! 

The woman’s real nice and collected; always has time fo’ people. Jus’ get a good feelin' around her ya know? Same with Amany, an’ she told me that’s somethin’ with her powers; Bedi, not so much. Dunno what she was afore the whole war, but now she keeps a tinkerin’ with those super blade things o’ her’s an’ meditatin’ from time to time. 

Speakin’ o’ Amany, she made breakfast for us the other day – heated up some frozen waffles of all things with some o’ her mind powers – she called it soul fire…? An yeah, I’ll take that… they tasted heavenly… ain’t had one in a while, but I’ll just assume they were the best damn waffles ever. I swear whatever they put in those things… I know the cold helps but, its been years man…” 

_He chuckles._

“An’ thankfully, she had plenty o’ syrup… woulda gone for some butter too, but can’t be askin’ for too much… She may essentially be a superhero at this point, but she ain’t all-powerful yet!

Bianchi is tryin’ ta get people ta call him deadeye for someone hit kill he made too – so yeah, we do have a regular superhero team in the makin’ here. Bao ain’t interested in it obviously, but hey least Sunny is goin’ along with it too. Think she’s been givin’ Amany some pointers too. But anyways yeah, suppose I oughta think bout join’ too. 

But seriously though, why can’t I find out that I got some super crazy mind powers like them yeah? Oh… oh, wait… I see how it is… I’m the last one to join the super team ‘cause a’… yeah… and I gotta… what? Make myself a suit or something’? Have a whole existential crisis bout being fully human is it? All because I’m… well, ya know… But hey, got a crippling addiction to waffles, Bradford’s goin’ off on how much of a beast he is, an’ we got three people with special mind powers. It fits, it fits…” 

_He chuckles._

“Heh, an’ to think all I got with that stuff are memories… Advent ain’t televising that shit that’s for damn sure. Its… interesting… people gotta have somethin’ above em to hold on to, trust it, worship, etc. Obviously, for, some it's themselves sure, but… that’s my guess why people seem ta like heroes man. An’, well… well now maybe we’re startin’ ta be the heroes if Jedi can get seriously thrown around for bein’ names for people…

Yeah… seriously though, it's not that I thought Bedi could make her energy sword things do that… what’s she call it… a… shoot… some beam…? Nah, Nah… Well anyways, didn’t wanna put her down an’ say she couldn’t do it. She wasn’t there when Bao an’ I made the bet sure, but… look… It ain’t simple, okay? Guess Bao would say it would be simple since its fricken’ me, but even so. An’ no, ain’t like I wanna get in Bedi’s pants o’ somethin’… That’s what Bao probably thinks anyways, maybe… Geez… lookit me…” 

_His voice trails off and goes silent for a bit. He sighs and continues._

“I wanna believe in all o’ us, K? Push each other to the limit I guess… Wanna give people the confidence ta, well, do everythin’ they want and could do. I ain’t gonna let people down like I did Hernandez, ish; clam up an’ not speak ma mind. Hell, I do so most o’ the time, nothin’ good comin’ from bein’ quiet with somethin’ like this. Gotta try an’ help spirits ride high… cause soon they’re gonna take out the last big transmitter I think. So yeah… that’ll be… interesting… Anywho, looks like… yep, alrighty, I’ll wrap this up then.” 

[Recording Terminated]  
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Resistance Recording, Log 001 - Date: [Redacted]  
Ethan “Ace” White

Uhh hello, I am Ethan White, my callsign is Ace. I am a Firestorm pilot for the Resistance/XCOM, and this is my first log. 

_He hollers over to someone in the background_ Do I seriously have to do this?

Shen can be heard in the background Yes! Everyone is doing this, even me! How about you start with telling the log a little bit more about yourself?

_Ace sighs and continues the log_

So, about me. Like I said before, I am a pilot, one the very few the resistance has, and when I say very few, I mean the only other experienced pilot here besides me is Firebrand. I fly the one and only Firestorm the resistance has. My main job is to take down ADVENT air units, such as their flying school buses they call “dropships” and their UFOs when they attack key resistance havens and outposts, but we also use the Firestorm for aerial reconnaissance. Lily and her father fixed up the firestorm several years ago so we could have some way to deal with ADVENT’s aerial superiority, and you could say that it’s helped a lot. Lily managed to implement it with an advanced stealth system to keep it off ADVENT radar, so ADVENT never knows when I’m coming and where I’m going. You can see why this helps out a ton, especially on recon missions. She plans on implementing the same technology into the Skyranger and eventually, the Avenger, once we get her flying that is. Which brings me to my next topic. Lily got sent out on her first real mission today with Cohen, Barta, and Marvez. Being the good friend she is, she let me patch into her Gremlin’s feed. Their mission was to get some scans of some old Avalanche missiles from a crashed interceptor so we can use them for the Avenger, but I’m also trying to convince Lily to put some on my Firestorm, since I only got magnetic cannons that Lily got from two destroyed ADVENT Sectopods that she somehow managed to put on the Firestorm, and some older, less advanced missiles that we recovered from an abandoned military airfield a while back. The mag cannons are nice but they overheat like hell and don’t have a lock on capabilities. Lily isn’t very focused on the Firestorm right now though, as her main priority is the Avenger, but still, having those missiles would be nice. Once the team got to the interceptor and I saw it from the camera feed, it made me think of Dad. Sure, it wasn’t his interceptor, cuz the pilot was dead in the cockpit and I can guarantee personally that my father didn’t die in an Interceptor, but it still reminded me of Dad nonetheless. Dad was Raven-1, and the best interceptor pilot XCOM had. He shot down countless alien UFOs and his skills as a pilot saved countless lives. I’ve tried to follow in his footsteps by becoming a pilot like him and save lives from the skies. I hope he’d be proud of me for becoming an “Ace” pilot like him...  
Anyways, I think I’m getting a bit off topic. Lily’s mission was... a tough one for her. While she completed it and got the scans, Barta was KIA, and Lily has been taking it really hard, as she was under Lily’s command and Lily feels responsible for it, but to be honest Cohen has been taking it way worse than Lily has. It wasn’t anyone’s fault except for the Sectoid though, as Cohen was mind controlled and shot Barta. Tensions are high with Skirmishers now because of this. Bradford would say that we need to move on, as losses are apart of war, but we must also remember those we lost along the way. Well, at least Barta didn’t die for nothing, as we got those missile scans. Maybe one day we’ll get the Avenger flying again, and maybe one day I’ll have some better weapons for my Firestorm.

*END LOG*

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Resistance Recording, Log 002 - Date:[Redacted]  
Ethan “Ace” White

_The sound of Ace’s flight helmet hitting the table and a chair being pulled out can be heard_

So, looks like Lily got me to do another log, I’m honestly surprised. Anyways, I just got back from an aerial reconnaissance mission. We found an old crashed Skyranger on the scanners and I was sent out to get visual confirmation on it, which I did. This Skyranger is part two of Lily’s “elaborate plan” to get the Avenger in the air. Bradford sent her on a mission to go get some scans of the Skyranger’s rotor systems for the Avenger. Instead of using the gremlin feed, I was watching from the skies in my Firestorm for this one. Another thing different from last time, Lily brought a team of five instead of four, and she brought the new Skirmisher, Dropei, and that new Grenadier, Kim. Cohen and Marvez came with again, as it seemed they’ve gained some loyalty to Lily, although Lily doesn’t believe that they really are loyal to her. I think this mission gained her a lot of respect, as it was flawless. There wasn’t a single casualty and everyone came back without even a scratch. They got the rotor scans and sent some aliens back to hell in the process. Bradford gave Lily a “grunt of approval” to congratulate her, which she seemed pretty thrilled about. Missions like that really help raise the morale around here and make people drink out of celebration instead of drinking to drown their sorrows. It’s been two weeks since the last mission so most have moved on from what happened then, which is partially why everyone is as happy as they are. The rookies, Kim and Dropei, fought pretty well during the mission, which was a bit surprising, but not too much. Sure, they’re not as good as some of the more experienced vets such as Zeng or Rutherford or Hernandez, but they’re good soldiers nonetheless. Anyways, I’m glad the mission went that well. I’m gonna end this log here as I’m getting tired of talking and there’s a cold beer at the bar calling my name, along with everyone else there celebrating this victory. We’ll celebrate this win tonight, but this war is far from over.

END LOG

\---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------  
—ADVENT COMMANDER DRASK BARTA—

It seems XCOM is scavenging from their fallen aircraft. Intriguingly, when Boktoa reported back from his mission to confirm rumors of Bradford's return, he confirmed the death of a skirmisher. One who shared my last name. The Skirmishers aligning with Bradford is not good news. Those traitors should be eliminated as soon as possible. The several Resistance factions have had difficulties uniting against us in the past, and if Bradford can convince them to work together, we will have problems.

Boktoa confirmed that Bradford was not leading this mission. We don't know the identity of the Squad leader, but it appears to be an inexperienced soldier. The traitor died due to attempts to retreat from a mind-controlled soldier despite having the opportunity to rush and kill the Sectoid controlling their ally. On their next mission, they managed to escape without injuries through some careful maneuvers. But they've only dealt with the small teams hunting for ordinary scavengers. Now, I am redeploying forces to crack down on them harder and make sure they can't find whatever they're looking for.

—END LOG—  
\-----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

John ‘Central’ Bradford:

Lily Shen and her team came slinking back quietly to the Avenger, knowing full well that their mission was not officially sanctioned. What they – or at least Lily – did not know was that I had a few words with Alon Cohen after their previous sortie. In a sick irony, he’d killed the Skirmisher Amodee Barta when under a Sectoid’s mind control; and his horror and anguish exactly mirrored that of Karla Hernandez not so long ago. While there were no civilians around this time to turn on him, I still had to confine Alon to his bunk out of fairness. When he finally stopped sobbing and beating on the walls, I sat the two down for a little heart-to-heart talk.

I do not blame either of them and did not, and will not punish them. However, I sensed that Alon’s unresolved guilt might cloud his judgment in the future and turn him into a liability, and agreed to let him make up for his actions by assisting and protecting Lily at whatever task she assigned to him. 

I did not count on her sneaking out to the fallen Skyranger with Alon tagging along, and I most certainly did not plan on the other three getting up to follow them of their own accord. I spoke with Alon through a hidden earpiece and knew they completed the mission flawlessly; giving a much-needed boost of confidence to both Alon and Lily. The poor girl thinks that the soldiers obey her only because I make them – not because they all spontaneously decided to defy me and fight by her side. Hopefully, outcomes like this will change her mind. It was hard to hide how proud I am of her. 

Shen would have been proud too.  
\-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Resistance Recording, Log 8 - Date: [REDACTED]  
Operative Bao ~~Bae~~ "Peacock" Zeng

In another life, I imagine us taking to the skies, fighting an entire renegade's war against the aliens with salvaged fighter planes, daring strikes, and judicious use of EMP. 

That said, it's probably rather telling that such a plan would require large amounts of fuel or Elerium that we don't have. We are the underdogs in this shadow war, creeping around the global surveillance of all seeing enemies, preparing what little we can grab for our next strike. In a way, we and the aliens have pretty much traded MOs. 

To be honest, today wasn't too eventful. I linked up with an old contact of mine, an Ex-Lieutenant Seth - fairly popular his attempts to form underground resistance rings, but it seems like ADVENT has been sending some kind of trained alien hitman after him every time to break them up. Details are vague, but it's gotten to the point where he's decided to take up a shotgun himself and head into the field to find out the identity of the knife-wielding assailant that's been imposing on him repeatedly. It just so happens that the area he's in is also the same rough AO I've been told to look for any leads on "Psi-MEC".

Unfortunately, both of our searches were a wash, but I did find this strange.... treaded drone with a broken turret on it. It seems to have been left to rust for years, and if anything, I'm amazed it still had any power left. I tried activating it to see if we could salvage it for parts, but when Shen saw me arrive home with the thing today her face lit up even brighter than it had been before and she quickly ushered it into her lab. I guess we're starting a robot zoo now - granted, if the Gremlins are any indication, it's an armed robot zoo, so I can't really complain.

Based on what Cohen's been telling me the new mission was a much bigger success - Shen kept her cool this time and didn't lean on her maps and numbers, instead of adapting the squad's tactics to the situation at hand. I like her use of those prototype holograms she's been fielding - they're not my style but they indicate a willingness to apply your best skills to supplement your struggling ones. Apparently, the salvaging party is going to head out in a few days to find a pilot's chair - Bradford joked about just taking our still damaged Skyranger's one, but judging by the look Firebrand shot him that's probably out of the question.

Well, happy seat-hunting, guys. Sure beats the myth-hunting I'm stuck with.

\-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------  
\-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Resistance Recording, Log 004: Date - [Redacted]  
Ethan “Ace” White

The sound of Ace grabbing his flight helmet and loading and holstering his sidearm can be heard before he then pulls out his chair and takes a seat. 

Alright, I’m gonna need to be fast with this log, because I’m heading out here soon on a UFO hunt. Today was an interesting one, to say the least. The mission Lily did a while back, she let me patch into her gremlin feed when she went out on her mission. She and her team were sent out by Bradford suddenly to go get some scans of an old ejection seat from an old interceptor. I laughed when Lily told me that this was the mission she was heading out on, but then Bradford came over and talked about how horrible the current seats are on the Avenger, and then to finally shut me up when he told me about the horrible ejection seat on the Firestorm. I’m pretty sure he was just lying and said it to get me to shut up about the mission, but now I’m starting to get a bit worried, especially since I’m going out on a mission here soon. I talked to Lily about the seat and she said it was just fine, as it uses a recovered Interceptor ejection seat. I’ll take Lily’s word for now, since she’s the Chief Engineer, not Bradford. Anyways Lily had the same squad as last time volunteer to come on this mission with her. I keep her that she’s gained some loyalty and respect from the troops but she just says it’s out of loyalty and respect for the Commander. I think she shouldn’t be so hard on herself, it’s not like she’s in the shoes of that ADVENT brain doctor named Tygan that we rescued last week. Anyways, during the mission, I was very surprised to see ADVENT there as well. I dunno if they wanted the chair too or came for something else or what, but to be honest nobody really expected ADVENT to be there during this op, but that didn’t stop the team from flawlessly completing it. Two flawless missions in a row for Lily, and still she doesn’t believe she’s gained the respect of everyone. Well, maybe not everyone, as Bradford was complaining about the cup holder on the chair, but I think he’s just being hard on her. Bradford said that he’ll be at the bar and will continue his story he’s been telling me and the others when I get back from the UFO hunt. Anyone else notices that Bradford only tells his story when he’s blasted drunk at the bar? Anyways gotta go, there’s a UFO that needs to be blown out of the sky.

END LOG

\------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------  
Resistance Recording, Log 9 - Date: [REDACTED]  
Operative Bao ~~Bae~~ "Peacock" Zeng

"We wouldn't miss a 97% chance shot, would we?"

Well, Lily, that 3% is a tad more frequent than many of us would like, and best wasted on frivolities like a fancy chair. Though, in all fairness, I can't imagine trying to pilot an airplane (or the alien equivalent) standing up. Amazing how modern conveniences can suddenly matter when they're no longer guaranteed - part of the reason so many falls for ADVENT"s promises of "a better tomorrow". (According to "Hamburgler", though, they can't 3D print a good cake or lasagna for their lives, so I suppose it goes both ways.)

Ex-Lieutenant Seth's acquired more intel on the alien hitwoman that's been harassing his cells. Some sort of prototype alien super soldier, and definitely not just some jacked-up Skirmisher. Just from the brief assessment, I gave him today "Hamburgler" believes the Elders are trying to make a new, 'better' version of their kind - more than likely to have humanity fill yet another niche in their ever-expanding army.

What baffles me is what they could potentially want humans for. Mutons are the strong, hardy point men, shrugging off shots as they invade areas scouted by lithe Vipers that can be converted into covert agents with enough gene splicing. Sectoids use Psi as fire support and to sow chaos in the enemy ranks that no bullet or grenade can compete with. UFOs and whatever machine soldiers they can construct double as both a means for armored warfare and a mass producible shock trooper.

...I suppose that's where rescuing someone that's been a prisoner of war for 20 years might help. If the Commander's still alive, goodness knows what kinds of sick experiments the aliens performed on him. Most humans would probably be turned into the walking ADVENT meatbags we see patrolling the streets without a second thought, so there must be something important about him that made the aliens hold off on just offing one of humanity's best generals for that long.

In any case, Shen's Chair Retrieval Team (yes, that's their unofficial name now at camp) retrieved their quarry without incident. I'm almost a little jealous of the action they're seeing, but at the same time, I understand that my skills are best applied as a covert operative for more...target oriented tasks. It just so happens that my target is a friendly one that needs to be taken alive - not quite what I'm used to, but with any luck, I should be able to discover Psi MEC's fate soon enough. Let's hope he's at least living, breathing, and capable of holding a gun.

P.S. Someone should really thank Marvez for putting his carjacking experiencing to such good use. His methods may be a bit loud, but when the aliens can't tell the difference between an accident and a controlled explosion, they're the perfect assassination technique against large platoons.

Twinodoom:  
—ADVENT COMMANDER DRASK BARTA—*

They stole a seat. They probably didn't realize it, but in doing so, they exposed their operation. Now we can confirm these aren't just mere scavengers. They're building something. Whether they're preparing a Skyranger or a fleet of Interceptors, we cannot allow this to continue. It also appears that we are not dealing with Bradford. These are his weapons and tactics being used, but he's not leading these operations personally. He's likely guarding whatever they're constructing. We have also discovered the drone used on these operations to scan the seat is not the same as the one used by Bradford's medics. In fact, this group appears to be lacking medical supplies. Perhaps Boktoa wasn't exaggerating the injuries he left Bradford with when he retreated. The absence of the Templars seems to suggest that there may be a rift between Bradford and their faction. I would suspect the drone operator is leading in Bradford's absence, and that capturing her should be our highest priority.

—END LOG—  
\-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------  
\-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

—ADVENT COMMANDER DRASK BARTA—

Now they're investigating old flight computers. It's not surprising the technology was still intact; XCOM was much more restrained when it came to using explosives than the Resistance Cells. What surprises me is that they're using technology that wasn't created by humans. Until now, they've only scavenged XCOM's crashed aircraft. What they're working on is of a larger scale than I originally anticipated. They could be plotting to construct their own spacecraft. If they are successful, they would be able to travel across the globe and potentially attack us from critical locations. This cannot be allowed.

—END LOG—  
\---------------------------------------------------  
Resistance Recording, Log 004: Date - [Redacted]  
Ethan “Ace” White

_Ace pulls out a chair and sits down_

Fourth log, wow, never thought I’d actually get into this. Seems that Lily was right about me getting into logging. She’s usually right about a lot of stuff. People have been telling me I talk about Lily a lot when I log, which is true. She’s always been like a sister to me really. I first met her back during the invasion when I stayed at the XCOM base with my father and the rest of the family. When the attack happened and I lost my family… Lily, her father, and the other survivors with us just became a new family. My father died protecting us so we could all escape, so this new family could survive. XCOM is that family…

Lily’s team got sent out again, except this time it wasn’t some fancy chair. It was a crashed UFO, which was probably some of my father’s handy work, as he shot down plenty of UFOs. Anyways, Lily and the team were after one of the alien AI that is in every alien UFO. Bradford was against the idea of plugging an alien AI into the Avenger but Lily insisted that it was necessary for the Avenger if we ever want it to fly. If anyone could make it work, it’s her. I also bet Tygan will be willing to help out a bit with that, as he probably has some experience with that stuff. Anyways, the mission was just like last time, everyone survived and went well so good job te-

_An alarm goes off and Ace is called to the hanger_

Shit, we got an ADVENT UFO pop up on the radar! I gotta go.

END LOG

——————————————————————  
Few Hours Later  
——————————————————————

FLIGHT RECORDING FROM AIRCRAFT CODENAME: “FIRESTORM”

BEGINNING AUDIO PLAYBACK

_The sound of an explosion is heard followed by then the sound of a UFO going down_

ACE: Bogey hit and going down!

COMMAND: Good work, time to head home Ace

ACE: Wait, I’m picking up something on the radar. It’s coming in fast 12 o’clock.

COMMAND: What the hell?

ACE: Enemy UFO coming in hot! Taking fire!

_The sound of a plasma cannon being fired followed by an explosion from the Firestorm’s engine is heard_

FIRESTORM AI: Warning, Detecting Critical Engine Damage. Also detecting fuel leak.

COMMAND: Ace get the hell of there!

ACE: That’s not possible Sir, the engine was hit and I’m losing fuel. No way I’ll be able to make it back to the Avenger. I’m taking this bastard down with me! 

_The sound of mag cannons firing and missiles being launched is heard_

ACE: Bogey Two is hit and going down!

_There’s another explosion in the Firestorm’s engine_

FIRESTORM AI: Warning. Losing altitude at unsafe speeds. The pilot is advised to eject from the cockpit.

ACE: Shit! Mayday Mayday! I’m going down! 

COMMAND: Eject Ace! Eject!

[SIGNAL LOST]

AUDIO PLAYBACK ENDED

\------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

KittySpam:  
Florian Bernard Vid Log 1

I am not sure about this group I ended up with today. First whenever they make logs they only record voice. Why? Let the future know what we looked like not just what we sounded like. I respect anyone who takes on the aliens but it isn't like I saw how they looked at me when I gave my name - and the nickname they chose for me sigh. You would think national stereotypes would have fallen with the old world. So I like to smell good - why is that bad? Still, we killed some aliens and no one will be putting ... ... ... smirks flowers... ... ... on their graves.  
\--------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Resistance Recording, Recovered Log 4 – Date: [REDACTED]  
User: Darrell Rutherford

There aren’t many residual noises once the recording starts aside from some crunching of groundcover/twigs, and very far off sounds of activity. Darrell coughs, followed by sounds of someone settling into a plastic lawn chair. 

“Bin a bit too long since the last record heh, finally got the time…” 

_He chuckles._

“Yeah, we’re actually not really traveling around anymore for a time. Bradford finally got around to tellin’ us some sort o’ truth, how he an’ some o’ the others ‘round here were part of the big government project that tried to defeat the aliens. I was expectin’ a bunch o’ guys in suits orderin’ us lowly people around, havin’ us fill out all the papers, maybe take on a few long-ass titles an’ whatnot. 

But no, this doesn’t feel like the last government run holdout from an alien invasion. Kinda like everywhere else I’ve seen, mean, ‘side from the bigass broken alien ship… like, huge man. The old man and his daughter were workin’ on it for some time now, although now it's just the daughter…”

_His voice trails off into silence. He sighs._

“Hm, probably should back up a tad… like, listened to my last recording before this so gotta keep going from where that left off, kinda. So yeah, the team destroyed that transmitter that was attracting those Chryssalids (or giant alien crocodiles…? Whatever Bao’s been callin’ em) but, we did lose someone… Bedi…” 

_A sigh._

“An’ just like that, we were out. They couldn’t recover her body ‘cause it was just too risky, those bugs were still poppin’ up as people were leaving. Bao pointed over to where she fell when we came in to get everyone outta there with the boat – had her rifle out to provide some cover, my gun wasn’t really built for shootin’ things behind friendlies an’ all. So yeah… won’t lie it felt a bit… off… that final boat ride. Couldn’t even lose a meal to the sea, didn’t feel it…

Ah well, while we were motoring back to shore, Bradford got to spillin’ the beans an’ all. Most seemed to take it all right; naturally, Bao was smellin’ something fishy from the start, seemed a bit surprised when I said I was a bit suspicious too. Anyways, o’ course Bradford had ta blow everything outta the water – had ta but in only when he started goin’ off on… on… shit, can’t really remember. 

Mean, he was always goin’ off about our guns, and of course about cuttin’ everything ta pieces with his sword… oh right, talkin’ about some weird-ass new aliens who teleported an’ shit. It's kinda weird, he says the same things ‘bout the dam too. I dunno, people get drunk in different ways.” 

_He chuckles and settles back in his chair. It groans ever so slightly in protest._

“But yeah, then we arrived at this holdout, got introduced around. There were some people there with weapons trainin’, but the real shit was with that alien ship and a friend of Bradford’s from this XCOM group, Dr. Shen. So yeah, me an’ the rest of the team got split into certain tasks – me, Rojas, Leslie, and Bianchi were assigned to help with the camp’s defense, Sofia went with the big heads, Amany to the group that Bedi was with, not sure what’ll come of that, Hernandez I think back to her people…? Not sure. Also not sure about Bao, haven’t seen her around for a bit. 

But yeah, got to trainin’ some folks too, specially Choi. She’s really taken to my ideas with using the LMG and ‘nades, which has been… well… pretty nice to see. Apparently, I was actually getting’ through to her an’ she’s apparently been showin’ it. Bradford himself too a few people under his wing too, an’ this Cohen guy has really shined. Granted he’s a bit more of a slippery guy, not much for the sword and all, but still… he has pranked me just a few too many times… Probably watchin’ me even now, though it’s a bit more likely that ah, Marvez is. Yeah, I know you’re out there man, its all good man! All good!” 

_He laughs nervously, readjusting his seat. There is an incomprehensible shout from a bit ways off._

“Yea, Ah know Leslie! Ain’t gotta remind me of shit ya hear!”

_He exhales._

“Yea, before we were so rudely interrupted… what was I on about…? Right, so um… Dr. Shen… I, I guess…” 

_He goes silent for a little bit. He returns, a bit softer than before._

“Yea, Shen… short o’ it, he was a saint. Like seriously, a bonafide saint. There may be Jedi’s an’ biotics an’ witches an’ shit around, but he was the real deal. Very similar demeanor to Bedi I suppose, though without the Jedi powers. We’d talk from time to time on the walls – he liked goin’ for walks every now an’ then, ‘wasn’t healthy to work without some breaks.’ An’ all. Yea, we’d really just talk ‘bout stuff, just ordinary stuff… Lotta questions just about me would always ask if he could do somethin’ ta help an’ all.

He didn’t talk that much about himself, but what he did was almost always about his daughter. The guy really worried almost all the time about her; making sure he wasn’t favoriting her, leavin’ her enough to get the job done if he weren’t around, makin’ sure he was givin’ her enough space to live her life…”

_He sighs._

“He was a good father. Kinda like mine in a few respects too, had to ah… well… uh, catch myself a couple o’ times too callin’ him that. An’ now… well… he’s just over there, few feet under…”

_A pause._

“Choi an’ I were part of the ceremony, held the back corners. Ulysses had been in town, so in jus’ a day we had a full on the coffin for him an’ all… Lily was real concerned about honoring him the best, had a few words for him at the funeral too. Couldn’t make em out, Bao seemed to though. 

Yeah… I was kinda tempted ta pull out one o’ Jake’s records for the ceremony, but… jus’ didn’t seem right. Gotta make sure that people do so for when I kick the bucket though - Grandma would always go on about tha’. Don’t know where or why he had that record, but, did ask fo’ a copy. So yeah… there’s, uh… that.”

_He sighs._

“Anyways, geez… Lily shrugged it off well enough, got sent on a mission right after. Mean, she did well, we did lose on o’ Hernandez’s people that came, but still… I don’t think she’d been in a combat situation before. Haven’t had a chance to ask her that, or really talk to her given that most of the time she’s up in that ship repairing it. She always seems to be on, focused on whatever task set before her. Kinda surprised that more of her father didn’t rub off on her… 

Look, I dunno, nor do I really need to know. All I’m sayin’ is that sometimes she’ll burn herself out, and I hope she has people to lean on. Especially now since she’s got this entire huge ship to take care of along with continuing her robot research stuff too, and somehow has the time ta make random missions in the middle of nowhere for parts and shit. Heard something about her goin’ after a seat of all things…? 

I dunno. Cohen and Choi have been goin’ along with her, really seem to trust her. From what I’ve heard, they’ve been doin’ a fantastic job too. An’ now thanks to their exploits they’ve made contact with this arms dealer. Heard Malone hootin’ over the new gun they were able to recover; apparently, she had quite the stash o’ new experimental shit. Lily did take a hit though, still… somehow she’s powering through it… I swear…”

_His voice trails off chuckling._

“Dr. Shen would be proud of how she’s carrying herself, though I bet he’d want her to believe in herself just a bit more. No doubt she’ll repair that big ass thing… Bao would probably be as skeptical as always but yeah, she’ll get it. Has her own little hit squad ta go along for the ride, get her whatever she needs. I would pitch in too, but, guess my place is here. 

Oh an’ speakin’ o’ the squad, that Florian guy… Haven’t even met him, he’s been on a couple of missions now and even so has heard an earful about him. Guess it’s the name but people are tossin’ ‘Flowers’ at him; certainly must be a new name for him, unlike with some. Seems resigned to it at this point, though definitely not without a whimper. Doin’ good in spite of it, hopefully, it ain’t just spite though…” 

_He chuckles._

“Man was pickin’ up some of Dr. Shen’s phrasings too, haven’t lost em though. Anyways… damn, um… Think… think that’s it… been a while since I did these anyways, not sure if I ever like officially ended one really. Ah well, guess that’s all for now, hopefully, I’ll get some time ta do another one.” 

[Recording Terminated]  
\------------------------------------------------------------------------------------  
\------------------------------------------------------------------------------------  
—ADVENT COMMANDER DRASK BARTA—

Warning: A Black Market trader sabotaged a Transmitter and stole information from one of our spacecraft. Despite our forces successfully destroying the transmitter, they were unable to determine if any information was stolen. There is a risk of impending assault on any of our space crafts. Remain on increased alert, and watch out for potential attacks from local Resistance cells.

—END TRANSMISSION—

\----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------  
Resistance Recording, Log 006: Date - [Redacted]  
Ethan “Ace” White

So, remember that one Black Market dealer we rescued yesterday? Well, she pointed us towards a hacked data interceptor that got the location of one of the UFOs I shot down two days ago, along with my crashed Firestorm. Lily volunteered to lead a team to retrieve the data from the transmitter, along with the rest of her team. The mission itself was a success, but a close call. What Masha, the dealer, failed to mention was that the transmitter was an ADVENT transmitter, and once they found out it was hacked, they were determined to get rid of it. Somehow the team managed to protect the data interceptor device and get the location. Fortunately, there weren’t any casualties.

Hm, something kinda odd was that while I watched the Gremlin feed, I had a strange sense of deja vu. Kinda weird, don’t you think? Maybe I’m just going crazy. 

A bit off topic here, but I have left the infirmary. It was two days there, which is surprising for someone who has a chest full of shrapnel. I never actually got all the shrapnel removed from my chest, as some were in there pretty deep and taking them out would cause some problems. Fortunately, the doc said they shouldn’t cause any problems, so I can even return to combat and flying. I guess I’m now like that one old superhero from the movies, Ironman, or like Big Boss from that one old video game, Metal Gear Solid. I loved movies and video games back before the invasion. I wasn’t the only one here who watched movies and played video games before the invasion, right?  
I wish we had some old movies and video games here on the Avenger. Something to remind us of the good old days, ya know? I would always go see new movies and play new video games with my dad back before the invasion...

_He pauses for a moment_

I bet getting some old movies and video games would really help boost morale. Maybe I should ask around to see if we got any. Little things like entertainment can really go a long way to lift people’s spirits.

END LOG  
\--------------------------------------------------------  
John ‘Central’ Bradford:

Shoooo… *clink* maaaybe it sounds unbelievable, but there she was facing down a Gatekeeper, two Archons, a Specter and a friggin’ Sectopod. There may or may not have been an Advent Priest too… behind a pillar or *gulp*…sh…something, but honestly at this point, I don’t think they really noticed. They charged in, guns blazing and carving a swathe of destruction unmatched in speed and ferocity by anything Advent could… has… has ever…thrown at us…*clink*…and came back without a scratch. Imagine that.

Anyway where was I? After the Sh...Shectopod went boom gulp the others all…kinda freaked out and cowered together around the transmitter, and the Gatekeeper …uh…uh…

…nevermind, that’s not what happened. *gulp* Lemmeh…lemme start again from the beginning…

\--------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------  
\--------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Resistance Recording, Log 007: Date - [Redacted]  
Ethan “Ace” White

Damn, you have no idea how I felt when I saw that Firestorm today. That was a real sight for sore eyes right there. It was in much better condition than what I expected. Not like I’m complaining though, the better condition the better chance of us repairing it. I’d probably be a while though, as Lily is not focused on anything but the Avenger right now. 

Speaking of her and the Avenger, Lily finally finished her quest of getting parts to fix it. She took her team to the crash site of my Firestorm and the UFO I shot down to recover the last of the parts she needed to get the Avenger flying. I got to see the gremlin feed as usual during the mission. It was a tough one, as the crew of the UFO was very much still alive. 

One more thing, we saw some strange alien we’ve never seen before in the UFO wreckage hat had extremely powerful psionic abilities. It had weird and hair and some weird mask and almost looked human in body shape. I’ve overheard some talk about it from Bradford when he was talking with four other resistance leaders on the vid-com. I knew that three of them were Volk, Betos, and Geist, the faction leaders, but the fourth was one I didn’t recognize, but he had a voice that seemed awfully familiar.

They said something about how the aliens are progressing on something called “The Avatar Project” and how we need to start preparing for Operation Gatecrasher now that we got the Avenger ready. I have no clue what this “Avatar Project” is, but everyone knows what Gatecrasher is. It’s the plan to rescue the Commander, who’s been in captivity ever since the fall of XCOM. Talk about Gatecrasher has been growing a lot lately, as Betos, the leader of the Skirmishers, somehow got the location of where the Commander is being held. The Reapers plan on infiltrating the place where the Commander is being held and get visual confirmation. Once we get visual confirmation, Operation Gatecrasher will begin.

Looks like I’m going to be co-piloting the Skyranger with Firebrand for now, at least until I’m called to fight on the ground. Maybe I’ll get my chance when we rescue the Commander, but for now, this is Resistance pilot Ethan “Ace” White signing off. 

END LOG  
\------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------  
\------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

—ADVENT COMMANDER DRASK BARTA—

They stole a power stabilizer. It's only a matter of time before the whatever Bradford is building is fully operational. It's past time we halted their operations. It's not simply enough to destroy what they're building. We need to destroy Bradford and his allies. I'm sending Field Commander Din Noaxa. Noaxa has been effective at taking down several Resistance cells. Studying their tactics, locating their bases, and capturing their leaders. Few are more qualified for the task at hand than her.

—END LOG—  
\----------------------------------------------------------------------------  
Resistance Recording, Log 10 - Date: [REDACTED]  
_This recording isn't the usual audio only or a video of Bao in dim light -- instead, it's taken from the camera of a GREMLIN on an outside workbench._

A loud crash suddenly echoes among the camp as Resistance Operative Bao Zheng's feet finally gave out, her beaten body lurching against the crates of some alien alloys. After having not been seen for over a week, her reappearance is only made all the more troubling by the bruised figure she was leaning against.

"Jesus Christ, Bao, what the hell happened?!" Bradford shouted as he and Sofia "Sparrow" Rojas ran over, each lifting the heavily wounded woman onto their arms. 

"Package was tracked... had to evac...crossed paths... Lily...captured..." Bao can only hastily gasp in between ragged breaths.

"Easy, easy, Bae," Sofia interjects, as more base staff come up with a stretcher. "You need a medkit, a clean bed, and someone to look at that leg. Let's get Bianchi to look at that."

As they trail off, Bradford suppresses a groan and sizes up the Argentinian man with a glare. A closer inspection quickly reveals why - the man's arms and legs are of an old telltale machine-like design, with slapdash attempts to keep them as cleanly oiled and working as possible despite the onset of rust and numerous scorch marks, a few that have clearly torn through what little 'clothing' he'd used to hide them. "Of all the people to be "Psi MEC"... Jesus, Delta-2, it's really you."

"A lot worse for the wear too, I'm afraid, sir..." The former Heavy of XCOM replies, his haggard eyes shifting grimly to the woman being wheeled off as he tries to retain an unsteady posture. "Shen's civilian body limbs weren't really made to finely grip small firearms, and my Mindfray isn't nearly as good as anything Geist and his group's cooked up. I've managed to survive but compared to your strike team that's coming back now, I think I overestimated how much I could help you all, Central." He pauses, then hastily adds "With all due respect."

"Hell no. " Bradford claps the man on the soldier, putting on a brave face - he'll drop it several hours later, safely hidden behind the cover of an empty vodka bottle. "I know not having Shen means we might have to make do for a bit, but let's get you settled and see where you can pitch in. You've definitely got several lifetimes worth of fights left in you Delta, but as your commanding officer, I'm ordering you to get some rest, right here and now. "

"Yes, sir." As the big man finally gives himself the chance to let someone help him to a bunk, the GREMLIN's camera flickers and quietly shuts off. Had anyone...or perhaps, any living being listened to the other side of it, they would've heard a robotic, guttural growl echoed across a private ADVENT network.

"Well, this won't do. I need her on a ship, yes, but I also need her functional and alive. Perhaps I'll give him a little helping hand - after all, they'll give me a statistically bigger one if I can finally acquire the SPARK...."

\-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------  
\-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------  
Resistance Recording, Log 11 - Date: [REDACTED]  
Operative Bao ~~Bae~~ "Peacock" Zeng

It's like an all hands on deck operation but with all our hands and at least one foot chopped off. While our previous operations to get the Avenger into an almost-flying condition have been wildly successful, they've certainly been compounded by their fair share of failures. Many of the operatives we'd used to acquire mission-critical resources were either captured or heavily injured - Chief Engineer Lily Shen being one of them. 

sighs and leans across her cot, quietly watching Rutherford and Amani argue over breakfast

Bradford's decided to take a smaller than usual squad consisting of the stealthiest fighters he can find (how stealthy men named "Ice King" and "Eze" are in those bright garish colors is another matter entirely), in hopes of pulling off a chain of rescues that would put us back on schedule for Operation Gatekeeper. I'd really have loved to volunteer, but Bianchi insists that I can't sprint my way out of a playground right now I'm grounded here, watching everyone come and go with little sting operations to keep ADVENT unfocused on our real objective. For some reason they've swapped to organizing their units like strike teams that eerily mirror our own, and Bradford decided that if they were going to try and beat us at our own game, we'd need to show them we had pioneered guerrilla warfare long before they considered using anything besides lots and lots of raw muscle and brain blasting.

You're probably wondering why I'm stuck in bed, given what I just said. My mission to find and extract "Psi MEC" was a bust. I'm sure people will argue otherwise, given that I got Delta-2 (that's the only name he'll give, and Bradford says it's sufficient) back alive, but a man with a body that had been specially designed for an XCOM MEC suit (Bradford assets they did it first - given how well this incomplete cyborg has lasted compared to the walking piles of tin the aliens use, I believe him) is also a man that has not been used to firing a regular gun for a very long time. Even now, he generally only sticks to heavy lifting to ensure the spasms in his glitched, worn down digits won't have him breaking anything.

If not for his 'Mindfray', my attempt to rendezvous with Shen's team would've ended in all of our deaths. Some clever new officer, one "Din Noaxa" to be precise, somehow managed to track down our general area of operations and had a Codex relay our positions back to an ambush squad by tracking Delta-2's use of psionics over the past few weeks. He may have been one of the world's most hardened military veterans once, but it's clear having to fight with limbs that weren't his own and using his mind as a weapon have left him rusty and out of his element. I fail to see why XCOM hoped he would be something greater if this was the end result.

\----------------------------------------------------------------------------


	5. The Lazarus Project

—ADVENT FIELD COMMANDER DIN NOAXA—

We captured the hacker, as planned. What was not planned was for Bradford to locate the compound where we were holding her. He sent a smaller team than usual to fight their way to their captured ally. It was just Bradford, a Templar, and a Reaper. I suspect they originally intended to move undetected, and possibly avoid confrontation with security. Fortunately, all other prisoners have been moved from the area. It's not likely they will have interest in them, but I have increased security near their positions in case he tries anything. We're also moving them towards the City Centers, which he has avoided entering as much as possible. But at any rate, we are close to finding their base of operations. Based on Bradford's decision not to bring fighters of his own Cell, I suspect that he is distant from the others. I may not have much faith in Commander Crendir Zeil, but he should be able to make sure the Resistance doesn't stop our trains. I already took care of his "Wrecking Crew" problem, so he shouldn't have any serious threats to deal with. In the meanwhile, I'll be looking for the Avenger.

—END LOG—  
\----------------------------------------------------------------------------  
Resistance Recording, Log 008: Date - [Redacted]  
Ethan “Ace” White

_Ace takes a sip from his bottle of beer_

So, lately, everyone has been kinda stressed with all preparations for the upcoming Operation Gatecrasher. Everyone has been wanting a break, so Bradford invited us all down to the bar and he decided to tell us about the story of getting the people needed for Gatecrasher. He started by talking about how Lily was captured a while back during one of her field ops. This was back when I was still flying the Firestorm and before we even saved Dr. Tygan. I remember when she was captured, but I feel like Bradford may have been exaggerating a bit. He talked about how they mirrored out tactics, but from what I heard, from people who weren’t telling the tale blasted drunk, the team was just like a typical ADVENT special ops team. They just managed to get the drop on Lily and were using non-lethal weaponry to capture her. Anyways, he told us about how they snuck into their base and rescued her. He failed to mention how they managed to find where she was being held, which made me be a bit skeptical about a lot of the story, but remember, he was blasted drunk so to say that he was 100% right would be crazy. Anyways, he said he would finish the story later, as he ending up having to go throw up due to how much alcohol he drank. I guess we got something to look forward to.

END LOG  
\---------------------------------------------------------  
John ‘Central’ Bradford:

Now gather round, one and all. I have an even better story to tell. Is Shen with us? No? Good. For all the fact that she physically fought Advent for every last nut and bolt needed to get the Avenger off the ground, even the legend herself wouldn’t admit that we once had to rescue her. Don’t let her know I’m saying this… but in those days, though we all did our best to reassure her, Lily was so desperate to prove herself worthy of her father’s role. Desperate enough to slink off after some new techno doodad or the other by herself and get caught.

You must be wondering why we didn’t send Alon, Florian, Choi or any of the squad she led previously to rescue her. The truth is that after having taken them on so many successful missions, she wouldn’t have been able to live it down. And if they failed to bring her back alive…the setback would have been almost impossible to recover from. So I put out a call to the Reapers and Templars to send me someone new, and I would personally lead the rescue attempt. 

In my haste, I misdialed a third call to the Skirmishers, so none of them showed up. I know I should have brought one. It was dicey and nearly cost me and Solomon our lives, but we made it out. And the Avenger is still flying. 

The next person we had to rescue was none other than the legendary Jane Kelly herself. But first, a round of drinks…and remember… _don’t tell Shen!_  
\-----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------  
\-----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

—ADVENT COMMANDER ZEIL—

XCOM liberated the prisoner Jane Kelly. She was to be interrogated by our forces to locate the remaining allies, then executed. I am unaware of how XCOM entered the city, but I can confirm they have left. They should not be a threat to the cannon. They shouldn’t even be aware it exists. Only Megapol, the Chosen, our own officers, and a prisoner XCOM did not liberate have access to that information. And we have no reason to assume that any of them have betrayed us. This should only be a minor setback. Thanks to Field Commander Noaxa’s work, the only human not working for us is the prisoner. And he will be executed tomorrow.

—END LOG—  
\---------------------------------------------------------

Resistance Recording, Log 12 - Date: [REDACTED]   
Operative Bao ~~Bae~~ "Peacock" Zeng 

Bradford's very fortunate that we have an inside man in Megapol - that operation to rescue Ms. Kelly could've gone a lot worse had it been started an hour later. Credit where credit is due of course, so I'll also mention that whoever our "Hamburgler" is, he is most certainly the sneakiest and boldest rat left in the city centers to have not deserted them, both for the sake of his own life and as an asset to XCOM.

Shen's return means that many of our stealth Gremlins can be comfortably deployed to scout out the area, so most of us stuck at the camp watched Bradford's new strike team make their run today. One of the smaller resistance cells, the "Children of the Earth", had unfortunately overplayed their hand, which meant Ms. Kelly would only leave that cell either extracted or dead. It just so happens that we're the only resistance force that can field cloaked aircraft. Our "Ice King", Fedor, is more into explosives and pranks than Marvez is into carjacking, but his experience shows and the first ambush he laid with Bradford killed the Vipers before they even had a second to react. The remaining ADVENT Trooper was so terrified that he completely missed his shot on Eze at point blank range, and the Templar naturally killed him for his Psi without a second thought. It's actually kind of interesting to see how Shen and Bradford's tactical preferences intersect. Shen's Chair Retrieval Squad took their time, relying on carefully made hacks and cautious ambushes to avoid a repeat of the disastrous losses she'd incurred on her first supply raid. Bradford on the other hand charges like an ox, preferring to be in close range as much as possible while surly figures like Rutherford, Sunny, and I rain hell on the battlefield. It took a bit of adjusting to on Bradford's end - I don't think he was used to having someone so good at disabling ADVENT machines on the field, but once he put a few ideas together no security emplacement could stop Shen.

(That said, the last few ADVENT trying to hide behind a burning car that was bound to explode from stray fire helped.)

The only real gripe everyone's had lately is that we can't really smuggle in medkits to our field teams - something that I had to struggle with during my last operation underground. Apparently, ADVENT recently updated their medigel with a new gene sequence and now actively purges any suspicious figures there found carrying an outdated version during bio-scan checks, which means many of us to have forgone a life-saving second chance if we even have a chance of gathering intel from city centers. Frustrating, but until we find someone who can update our kits, we're stuck with using the old version that we've salvaged from disposal facilities.

For now, though, Kelly's intel has led us to a giant alien artillery cannon sitting in the middle of nowhere that definitely seems to have been designed to shoot down pesky resistance aircraft only fielded by a certain resistance group out there. I have to admit, I can't help but imagine it would be quite the shock for the aliens if that canon conveniently disappeared and suddenly reappeared in XCOM colors, especially if Shen figures out how to repair our Firestorm...

========  
Meanwhile, in 2035...

"Ahhhh, YEARH, commanderh! Ah KYLLED everyTHANG that movehd or CRAWLRED!"

"Central, we're going to need to get you a new liver if you have a 5th tall tale to tell us one of these days." 

"Hhahar, yah try saying that whenh you SEE Jane beat a Mutonhh with her bare fists..."

 

\------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Resistance Recording, Log 009: Date - [Redacted]  
Ethan “Ace” White

_Ace grabs a glass and drops a few ice cubes in, then pours a shot of bourbon into it_

Jane Kelly, the one and only. One of the greatest heroes to fight for XCOM. To be honest I don’t see what makes her so amazing. She’s an amazing soldier, but so is a lot of over people here. Maybe it’s the fact that she once ran a resistance group, which I will say had a pretty shitty name. I mean, come on, Children of Earth? Sounds like a name for a cult. To be fair, they were pretty good at what they did; killing aliens, blowing up ADVENT infrastructure, and stealing anything from them that wasn’t nailed down. This was until they were eventually taken out by ADVENT and Jane was captured. Bradford and a team of other XCOM operatives saved her around two months ago. He speaks pretty highly of her, which isn’t something Bradford does often unless you bring up the Commander, cuz then he’ll just go on and on about how amazing the Commander is. While I am kinda talking shit about Jane, she is a good soldier, one of the best, but I just personally think she has quite a bit to learn. An example of this would be that she needs to talk more, cuz she doesn’t talk much. People say she just the “strong silent type” but let me tell you something: being silent is probably the worst thing for being a soldier, as you need to communicate with your team to have maximum effectiveness and minimize the chance of an ambush. 

_Ace takes a sip from his glass of bourbon and then chuckles a bit_

You know, I guess I’m kinda being a hypocrite aren’t I? I bet someone could make a pretty long list of stuff I do wrong. I honestly wouldn’t even mind someone doing that, as I always accept some good old constructive criticism. Makes me a better soldier and squadmate. I bet Firebrand would be the most likely to write that list. She’s always like “do this”, “do that”, “don’t do that”, “stop being a reckless idiot”, and “be a better co-pilot” for a few examples. I think she’s just trying to give off a “this is my Skyranger, not yours, so don’t get shot down like you got shot down with our only Firestorm” impression really. I don’t blame her, I wouldn’t want anyone but me flying my Firestorm, especially if they have “got shot down once” on their personal record. She’ll get used to me being her co-pilot eventually, but that may take some time. Anyways I’m gonna wrap this log up, Ace out. 

_He takes another sip from his drink before ending the log_

END LOG  
\----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------  
\----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

John ‘Central’ Bradford:

_There is a clink of a bottle being set on a tabletop, followed by the faint squeak of its cap being screwed back in place_

This time, I’m raising a toast to Fedor ‘Ice King’ Sokolov, a hero of XCOM and Reaper extraordinaire, who faced down…Berserkers. And Advent. And Mechs. And Codices. Took a bullet for us so we could all get away after biting off more than we could chew. Though to be fair, only Shen got out unscathed due to sheer, dumb luck. 

 

-Gulp-

Advent was transporting some sort of …device. Uh….weapon. A truck. A big, mean weapon on a truck. Looked a lot like the ones pointed at the Avenger a couple of times. Not sure where they were taking it, but we didn’t want to find out later, so we had to blow it up. _Clink_

Now, if I may digress a little, Tygan once told me ‘bout a little behavioral experiment on monkeys he’s heard of, though zoology isn’t his thing. If a monkey steals something that belongs to you, and you don’t want it back that urgently, then you should shrug, turn away and act like it’s nothing. Don’t shout at the monkey, chase it, or try and bribe it with a treat to get your thing back; cos then it learns that the thing it took was valuable and better kept for itself. If you ignore the critter, he’ll just drop it eventually. So anyway… when we saw how many aliens were going apeshit, pardon the pun, when they saw Fedor at the big cannon-truck, we knew we had to take it from them.

 

Maybe we should have thought of keeping that thing for ourselves, even if we didn’t actually know what it did at the time. Maybe Shen could have scanned it and reproduced it, and we could be flying the skies with a dirty great big cannon mounted on every flat surface of the Avenger. Gulp Maybe we’re all just hairless monkeys blowing up stuff we didn’t understand. At least Peter Osei shared that philosophy…and he was the next to join the troop.  
\-----------------------------------------------------------

Resistance Recording, Log 010: Date - [Redacted]  
Ethan “Ace” White

So, Bradford continued his story tonight. This time he told us about how he, Jane Kelly, and the rest of the team took out some big ADVENT cannon. Told us about how everyone was so heroic and about everything blowing up, and how they won against overwhelming odds. How they barely made it out alive and survived only due to the heroism of the team. A typical Bradford story, really. He does love to exaggerate when he tells stories, especially after he’s had a few drinks. Honestly I never even knew about this operation until know, but this was probably due to me being on an aerial reconnaissance mission at the time. Well, if it is true, maybe I got to thank them for it, cuz for all I know that cannon could have meant to shoot me down at the time. I mean, it’s not like there really was any other major aerial targets at the time, as the Skyranger and Avenger weren’t ready at the time, so I was really the only air target there was. Nobody would know if it was actually even meant for air though, as it was never fired due to it getting blown to smithereens by Bradford’s team, but you can’t be too careful, right? Anyways these days where we get to just relax and prep for gatecrasher are pretty nice. I’ve been working on the Firestorm in any way Imagine able to. Unfortunately, supplies for it are bit scare though, and most of those supplies are being used for the Avenger instead. I can understand it though, the Avenger is the first priority when it comes to engineering projects. Lily said she’d help work on the Firestorm once she’s done with the Avenger, but that still wouldn’t fix the supply problem. The Elerium and Alien Alloys that are crucial to repairing the Firestorm are pretty hard to come by, as the aliens have their depots and supply trains carrying them very well guarded. Sometimes people coming back from covert operations like Zeng will bring some alien tech back with them after ops, but usually, it’s a pretty small amount. Still, every bit of tech helps, even if it’s just a handful of elerium. Maybe once the commander returns we’ll be able to get the supplies we need.

END LOG

\-------------------------------------------------------------------------------  
—NEWS INTERVIEW OF MICHAEL MORRISON, MEGAPOL SECURITY CEO—

Yesterday I was briefly investigated by one of the ADVENT Commanders. What was his name? Xul? No, wait, it was Zeil! He suspects I warned the Resistance of Siege Cannon ADVENT requested I designed. Apparently, the first group to assault it failed, and at some point later, Bradford arrived to finish the job. He was wounded, and his team became cautious to avoid the remaining forces because the area was closed, and risked overwhelming them. From what I've overheard, one of the ADVENT Field Commanders planned for to capture Bradford, but the Reaper managed to get close enough to plant explosives, and they narrowly escaped with several injuries, but no fatalities. There was no evidence I had anything to do with attacks, so they left me alone with no charges of treason. 

Of course, I couldn't have indirectly exposed the movements of the cannon to the Resistance by disguising the message on the receipt of the ADVENT Burgers I ordered yesterday, but how could I have learned that they'd moved the cannon? It's not like I have access to the means of monitoring my factories remotely, from the safety of my home. I wouldn't be able to watch it without my personal ADVENT bodyguards reporting me. I would have had to replace them with Skirmisher Double Agents. Honestly, this is all just Fake News, being spread to generate distrust of the humans loyally serving the Elders. It's the kind of conspiracy theory you'd hear from Resistance Radio. What were they saying the other night? "ADVENT turned the Chrysalids Grey"? What does that even mean?

—SIGNAL INTERRUPTED—

\----------------------------------------------------------------------------------  
Dear Mr. Morrison,

Your business partner would like to thank you for the timely delivery of ADVENT Burgers in light of an inconvenience delivery by ADVENT Eats. The quiet, less than easy nature of his work is sure to attract more alternative businesses that would be happy to give less noisy, aggressive food delivery. We thank you for continuing to support our employee and hope for our business to reach new heights.

\- Patricia E. Corgison  
\---------------------------------------------------------------------------------  
Argent:  
Resistance Recording, Log 12 - Date: [REDACTED]   
Operative Bao ~~Bae~~ "Peacock" Zeng 

Hernandez and Dropei have reported back from their MegaPol infiltration to me since Bradford's still on his way back to base - looks like our attempt to blow up that ADVENT anti-air platform was successful. It really says something that they haven't had to worry about air superiority until we came along - if the crackpot theories are right and at least one of the alien races are a slave race (my guess would be the Mutons), the UFOs they have probably wiped out entire empires by themselves just by having far fewer concerns about ammunition, range, and the fact giant lasers can double as a bombardment and dog fighting armaments. 

As for the mission itself, I almost thought our overconfident "Ice King" was going to end up as dead meat, but Sokolov has once again proved that his stealth expertise isn't all about stealing yet another drink from Bradford's stash. I also left a message for 'Hamburgler' to get back to our man in MegaPol - part congratulations, part warning. That new Transtellar contract is most definitely an attempt to smuggle in some Faceless plants and he should be very well aware of that - our attempt to coordinate with the Wrecking Crew to try and sabotage their transit systems to slow them down didn't exactly go as we'd hoped. Their lead man, Peter Osei, was apprehended as a result and now Bradford's got to prepare for another emergency smash and grab operation before someone wrings out the location of the Avenger from him through unrestrained use of mind control. 

As for how....to make a long story short, I would've said Osei is like a Rutherford lite. Preference for explosives, just a tad more impatient, too hasty to fire and clearly an upstart with no formal training....but the keyword is would've. Now, don't get me wrong, I'm sure Rutherford is a trustworthy man with the same burning desire to see this cause through as the rest of us, but with the restraint he holds his gun with by comparison and the way he dodges around speaking of the past, I'm certain there's more to him than meets the eye. Or perhaps he's just the type of man who prefers small talk at his meals. It's been a while since I've had to read a human being like that, especially when I've spent years getting used to how aliens have their own tells...

Whether that's my place to find out more or not is another story - Bradford says that he suspects 'Hamburgler' is being tracked down as well in the face of a new series of ADVENT crackdowns, and has privately asked me to consider being a field commander of sorts in the interest of helping more resistance ops succeed in his absence from camp. I can't say I'm against the idea - that last ambush that led to Shen's capture ripped up my body in more places than one and I can feel the slowness in my steps even as I try to regain the stamina I once had. (According to Bianchi, I'm lucky to even be walking.) I've started to gather intel for possible "Skirmish Sites" that we could feasibly reach by truck convoy since the Firestorm is still out of commission and the Skyranger has more important places to be.  
\----------------------------------------------------------------------------  
\----------------------------------------------------------------------------

Twinodoom:  
—ADVENT COMMANDER ZEIL—

Of course, Morrison was nowhere near the fighting when the Resistance prevented the execution. And yet I am being accused of incompetence because they managed to escape me twice. I don’t possess access to the interceptors needed to destroy their Skyranger, and they’ve managed to elude us since before the war. But it’s my fault because of the Siege Cannon being destroyed outside my own territory. I sent a team to recover it after the attack, but they couldn’t locate the Reaper. That was outside of my control. They suspect Kelly somehow gained knowledge through the prisoners communicating with each other. But had we secured them all in our remote prison compound, they would not have escaped. This is not my failure.

—END LOG—  
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Resistance Recording, Log 011: Date - [Redacted]  
Ethan “Ace” White

_Ace takes a quick drink from his beer before starting_

You know what I’ve always wondered? Do people even drink in the city centers? I’ve never seen a bar there when I’d go on aerial reconnaissance missions over them. I mean, it’s not like drinking is really a big thing with aliens, as a good amount of them don’t even have mouths. I remember how Bradford told us that one story about how he and his new team went to a bar a few months after the fall of XCOM and it was being destroyed by ADVENT. From what he told us from the story, I don’t think ADVENT cares much for bars…

On the topic of Bradford telling stories, he continued his story and this time about how he and his team rescued Peter Osei. The story was pretty similar to the Jane Kelly story, except it was an ADVENT prison instead of a train. The mission went like most: took a few hits but everyone came back alive and the mission was a success. Before Peter joined XCOM when we rescued him, he led a small resistance group called the wrecking crew, which has a name that sounds more badass than what Jane came up with for hers. Unfortunately like Jane though, his crew was taken out by ADVENT and he was captured, but he was saved by us soon after.

Peter has always been someone who everyone liked. He’s a good friend have a drink with at the bar and a good squadmate to have watched your back on a mission. Unlike Jane, he actually is someone you can talk with, and he’ll even have a few good jokes he can tell you. He gets along with everyone, but he seems to get along with Rutherford the best. You can often find them down at the practice range shooting targets competing against each other to see who can hit more in a certain amount of time. He’s been down there a lot more lately though cuz’ he was chosen to be on the commander rescue team with Bradford, Jane, and Ana Ramirez. Operation Gatecrasher is coming up here soon, so it’s good that he’s training, cuz’ he’s gonna need to be on his A-game...

_He takes another sip from his beer bottle_

We’re all gonna need to…

END LOG  
\-------------------------------------------------------------------------------  
\-------------------------------------------------------------------------------

—ADVENT COMMANDER ZEIL—

We were close to eliminating Ana Ramirez. Her camp was located and overrun quickly. But Bradford was able to extract her. She hid like a coward in one of the train cars, leaving us to slaughter the Resistance Cell she was leading. We killed enough of them to render the Cell completely nonfunctional. Jane Kelly was infected by Chrysalid poison and carried away with her current status unknown to us. Bradford was also wounded during the fight, but he escaped with the others. We are unlikely to see Bradford return to the battlefield. Locating him would require us to find and destroy the Avenger. But as Field Commander Noaxa determined, Bradford is distant from the Avenger. She should be able to locate the Avenger when he attempts his return. We should be able to send an interceptor to destroy it and finish him.

—END LOG—  
\---------------------------------------------------------------------------

John ‘Central’ Bradford:

Now everyone, let us raise another glass in memory of Osei and Ramirez. You may have heard of their sacrifice to bring the Commander back, but they were leaders in their own right – and probably the last survivors of their Resistance groups. We owe our own survival to a lot of the skills they taught XCOM during their time with us.  
Before meeting Osei, I didn’t think it was possible for a Resistance group to survive in the city and escape surveillance. It’s hard enough to move about even with the hacking expertise of our multiple Specialists; when every other door and lamp post tries to scan your ID card or tracking implant. Yet somehow the Wrecking Crew managed to damage Advent, not just survive. Apparently, you don’t need to use the street if you know your way around the sewers. I guess you don’t need to figure out how to get through a door either when you get to choose whether or not it exists. Or how to get food when Advent supermarkets and burger joints seem weirdly prone to accidentally falling into sinkholes for *some* reason. 

The Wrecking Crew also discovered that there was more than one way to empty a building of Advent. When you cram millions of people into high-density housing, every toilet is a ticking time bomb waiting to explode its contents all over the –

\- sorry, Florian. Not at the dinner table. I get it. _Clink_

And Ramirez, well she was a completely different beast. I think she had a farming background from before the war, allowing her people to live completely off the grid and conceal a small farm from Advent’s drones. We almost didn’t find them either – they kept the place run down and abandoned looking. It was The Chicken that brought us together – specifically the single bird that managed to escape and draw the attention of an entire hungry squad of our own. We never got The Chicken, but we did get a pissed off Ramirez threatening to draw and quarter everyone for attempted livestock theft. Once we sorted out our differences, Ramirez proceeded to turn the Avenger into her own flying, high tech farm. Her hydroponic setup is the reason why you can enjoy a minimum of sixteen different varieties of fresh fruit and vegetables 24/7 in our mess hall, grown on our waste as well as that of our own fish ponds. Her loss came before she could start rearing chickens down below Tygan’s lab, but rumor has it that she had begun bringing a few on board.

…no, I never got to find out who…or what… left an egg under the geo-scape. Tasted pretty good though.

\---------------------------------------------------------------------------  
Hootie:  
Resistance Recording, Log 012: Date - [Redacted]  
Ethan “Ace” White

Ana Ramirez was the topic of Bradford’s story tonight. She’s the fourth member of the Gatecrasher team. I honestly don’t know how she hasn’t been recruited by the Reapers yet though, cuz’ she’d fit in perfectly with them. You see, Ana is a survivalist, and she lived off the grid before joining XCOM. She was actually the only Gatecrasher team member besides Bradford who’s been with us for a while. Back in the day, she’d train our new recruits how to fight and survive in the wild and teach them guerrilla tactics to use against ADVENT. To nobody’s surprise, this training school was eventually taken out by ADVENT, which brings us to Bradford’s story, which is, you guessed it, saving Ana Ramirez. 

_He takes a swig from his bottle of beer quick_

Seriously, we must have been slacking our asses off then, I mean seriously, how did nobody notice that ADVENT was capturing all these Resistance leaders? 

Continuing on the topic of Bradford’s story, the story wasn’t as typical as usual. Jane Kelly almost died during that fight. She got poisoned by a Chrysalid and almost died. She was unconscious for most of the time, but I remember the part of the story from the past about when they returned from the mission and how Jane was lying on a stretcher with all the medics rushing her to the infirmary. It’s actually quite astounding that she didn’t die, as most people would have died before they could have even returned to the Avenger. She’s tough though, and to be honest she’s probably survived worse.

_Ace takes another swig_

I never met Ana before that day, which is actually quite unusual for most people, as a lot of the people here today were trained by her. Then again, I’m not like most soldiers, as before I was a pilot, not an infantry unit. I honestly can’t say much about her as I can for Jane or Peter. Maybe I should talk a bit more with her and get to know her better. 

_Ace grabs his bottle of beer to take another swig, but the bottle is empty._

I’ll do that after I get another drink. 

END LOG  
\---------------------------------------------------------------------------

Resistance Recording, Log 13 - Date: [REDACTED] 

Operative Bao ~~Bae~~ "Peacock" Zeng 

Bradford seems to be growing his rescue party from the operatives he's rescuing as he frog-hops from rescue-operation to rescue operation. Osei was more than happy to take a grenade launcher and start blowing things up (his overconfidence will get him killed someday, mark my words). They're swinging back towards us to make sure Kelly can fully get the Chrysalid poison out of her system before the next rescue op...which is good because they've also got a very angry ADVENT "Custodian" Squad on their heels. First of its kind, super heavy armor with plated shields....seems like the logical conclusion of their 'strike team' experimenting. Amandi, Bianchi, Rutherford, and I are planning to meet up with Sokolov and set up an ambush to intercept them which should throw them off our trail long enough for us to complete our next important development.

To elaborate, 'Hamburgler' has correctly anticipated that Din Noaxa is honing in on him as the MegaPol-XCOM middleman and has somehow literally ripped the tracking chip out of his own brain and fled. 

_pauses_

...alright, I'm not using that code name any longer now that it's no longer of use. Doctor Richard Tygan is actually the exact man we need to update our medkits to the current ADVENT bio-security protocols so that we can smuggle them to other Havens and past security checkpoints again. While we'll lose contact with MegaPol for a while until we can send in a new plant, the number of resistance operatives who will benefit with their lives from this gives me the impression this shift in the situation's for the better.

Hernandez and Dropei should be back soon with the reports on the new ADVENT Commander's movements - once Kelly's rested up after a few days (including the one we ambush the Custodians, mind), Bradford's strike team will be taking off again in hot pursuit of Tygan.

It's almost like clockwork, and I can only hope we have no rusty gears or alien sledgehammers to surprise us.  
\-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------  
\-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Resistance Recording, Log 013: Date - [Redacted]  
Ethan “Ace” White

_Ace sits down in a chair in the bar on the Avenger_

You know what I’ve always wondered? What is it actually like being an average citizen in one of the city centers? What rights do you have? What do you do for fun? How do they view the resistance and how do they view ADVENT? Do aliens like Sectoids and Vipers and Mutons live among them? What does an ADVENT burger even taste like, and what are they even made out of? 

I’ve always wondered these questions, or at least I have until I met Dr. Tygan. He’s an ex ADVENT brain doctor that joined us about two months ago, back when I was doing my second and third logs. Bradford told us the story about rescuing him, but after, Lily told me what really happened, which was a bit different from Bradford’s story, but Bradford had most of it right, he just exaggerated a bit. Tygan honestly had it pretty nice back in the city centers. He had a good job, a good amount of pay, and above all else, he was important to ADVENT. I guess he somehow saw something he wasn’t supposed to or learned too much and saw how evil ADVENT really was, which made him contact us and do a chip remove procedure on himself. I’m pretty glad I never went to the city centers and stuck with Lily and Dr. Shen, cuz’ I wouldn’t want some weird chip that does god knows what inside my skull. 

Nobody really trusted Tygan at the beginning, which is understandable, he was ex ADVENT, and that’s something that’s hard to come back from, but I’ve known plenty of Skirmishers and I’ve learned that they don’t want that life anymore. It doesn’t matter how many luxuries they bribe you with, a good person won’t go back to doing their dirty work for them. Do I trust Tygan now? Yes, I do. He may be a bit awkward, but you have to understand where he’s come from. He had to take out his chip all by himself, and that probably had some negative effects on his brain, but if he is really just an ADVENT spy, I think we’d all be getting tortured in an ADVENT interrogation by now. 

Anyways, enough about Tygan, more about some more recent stuff. I’ve gotten better at co-piloting the Skyranger, which is good, cuz’ if I’m not gonna be on the ground during Gatecrasher, I’m gonna be in the skies with Firebrand. 

Zeng, Rutherford, Bianchi, and Amandi are out doing something on a covert op. I don’t know what it’s about but it’s probably important.

The factions won’t stop bickering, like usual.

Bradford is getting more and drunker every day, which isn’t surprising. Maybe it’s the stress of Gatecrasher.

And… that’s about it. Nothing much else to talk about, so I’m gonna wrap this log up now. 

Ace out

END LOG

\----------------------------------------------------------------------------------  
—MICHAEL MORRISON, MEGAPOL SECURITY CEO—

I've tried to maintain contact with the Hamburgler after his retirement from ADVENT, but I've been mostly reduced to using Bradford to pass messages. It wasn't easy to convince Bradford, but he desperately needed the assistance of the Hamburgler if he plans to rebuild XCOM. I have heard that Dr. Vahlen was captured by ADVENT, but that's only rumors. There doesn't seem to be any evidence of her being amongst any of the current surviving prisoners. At the same time, the Hamburgler decided to violently remove his own chip, putting himself in jeopardy when ADVENT discovered what he had done.

What's most ironic about my ability to maintain cover, is that I created the technology they expected to deter me. It was meant for their soldiers, to improve combat effectiveness, receive orders near instantly, and collect data from their encounters. They modified the chips to serve a function it wasn't intended to. As a result, I found several exploits I can use to bypass it. I can see why they value human ingenuity. Unfortunately, they did not understand the usefulness of Human loyalty.

—END LOG—

\---------------------------------------------------------------------------------  
Resistance Recording, Log 14 - Date: [REDACTED]   
Operative Bao ~~Bae~~ "Peacock" Zeng 

Custodians are off the map and 'decommissioned until further notice'. Seems like someone didn't do a very good job of safeguarding their brains, because a little Psi scrambled their formations more than well enough for Rutherford to blow them all to kingdom come. Anyone that made it out of that little X4 special of ours had to contend with me and armor piercing rounds, and for all the body armor they were packing their helmets clearly weren't much better. Something tells me these new troopers were rushed out early to try and stop Bradford's momentum. As is, we can only hope that the politicking over their failed field test means they won't be churned out in greater numbers. (Our friendly DJ had tipped us off that the aliens seem much more interested in creating another single superpowered hitman, much like the unknown one that currently harasses ex-Lieutenant Seth and the Skirmishers...)

I'll admit, I'm a little concerned about how hammered Bradford was going out on that mission - from what the reports say he missed a lot more than he usually did with his trusty kukri and Osei took a few more shots than needed. Then again...it's Osei we're talking here. The guy could hide under a fortress of alloy crates and somehow still make enough noise for the aliens to shoot him head-on. Apparently, the squad, in general, got a little too afraid of blowing up their own extraction point but despite exercising restraint with their explosives and taking the above-mentioned beating they pulled through.

Apparently, Bradford has one last hit and run job he needs to do while Tygan's still with them before he permanently holes up at the Avenger again for the foreseeable future. Something about an 'object of great power' or the like. Once he's done, we essentially trade places - I'm the new field commander testing my chops and managing all the little strikes while Bradford looks for more big opportunities for all of us to hit it. 

It's actually pretty amazing, seeing him change from the drunkard vet we thought he was to be a slightly less drunk but disciplined officer he really is. The Avenger, despite still being grounded, has flourished into a resistance outpost with a name - XCOM. Many of us see ourselves less as unfortunate fallouts or people just trying to defend yet another home, and more as soldiers with a mission - we go in, we strike at what we can, we drill and improve. Who you were before the war or what it changed you into matters little - if you are free of ADVENT's control chips and fight for the same values humanity does, we'll find you someone willing to offer you a welcoming hand.

Speaking of which, I need to contact 'Speedwagon' and see how my own recruitment pushes have been going. If I'm to start running covert ops of my own, I'll need teams of my own to coordinate strikes. I'm sure Bradford would push me to try and take the old crew along, but I admittedly want to try my own hand at raising a team of rag-tag misfits, if only to see if I myself can rally anyone in this war for Earth.  
\----------------------------------------------------------------------------------  
\----------------------------------------------------------------------------------

—MICHAEL MORRISON, MEGAPOL SECURITY CEO—

The Resistance is preparing for another rescue operation. This time, they believe they've located the Commander of XCOM. If that is true, this could be a turning point. The real war can begin. Project SPARK is still functioning, even if the AI running it may have killed a number of my employees. I have also secured a position that allows to me help XCOM without exposing myself to ADVENT as a traitor. From what I can tell, the area their targeting is heavily guarded. There's little chance of everyone they send making it out alive. I don't know Bradford's plan, but he's unlikely to go through this mission unprepared. The Resistance leaders he recruited are going to be essential. I wish them luck.

—*END LOG*—

\-------------------------------------------------------------------------------  
Resistance Recording, Log 15 - Date: [REDACTED]   
Operative Bao ~~Bae~~ "Peacock" Zeng 

"No, I absolutely don't believe you." Bao crosses her arms in front of the camera as she looks at Bradford, who looks more like a kid on Christmas morning than the drunk grizzled officer she's used too as she stares dumbfounded at what he's holding.

"You absolutely did not go all the way out there, getting almost all of your new team injured, just for a damn sweater."

Bradford just grins silently and shakes his head. If Bao was more awake, she would've sworn she heard a giggle.

"Bradford, with all due respect, or maybe without it, I'm getting Bianchi. You're either really hammered or finally giving in to shell shock, and I need to have a word with Ty-"

"No, no, wait." Bradford shakes his head and exhales. "Okay, Bao, so I might be a little drunk after getting my favorite sweater back and I do find the whole idea that the aliens thought it was a WMD too hilarious for my own right now. But Tygan's information wasn't a fakeout, accidental or intended."

"You're going to need to convince me with something more tangible than that sweater, Bradford."

"Alright, alright." Bradford exhales and takes out a datapad from behind his back, swiping past a few tabs. "To the average citizen, this is yet another gene therapy clinic. To MegaPol, it's something beyond their access level - Elder-only, if you're curious. For a while, everyone stationed at the nearby city center or haven has suspect it had some critical intel..."

Bao's eyebrows narrow as Bradford swipes to another tab

"...and you're telling me that we're going to rescue this man. The man that had lost the war against the aliens." She interjects. "Seriously, Bradford, you've been at this for 20 years. As far as I know, he only lasted a few months, maybe half a year if I wanted to be sympathetic."

"Bao, listen to me. This man is not just any man - the Aliens were dropping Sectopods on day one when they came here. I wouldn't have lasted a week. That man got us three months in, against a whole alien planet's worth of heavy armor and..." Bradford sighs and shrugs sadly as if realizing the uphill battle he's got to convince everyone "He was winning. We had MEC-cyborgs and new heavy armor and the railgun tech ADVENT 'adapted' from us into most of the rifles you see used today - in fact, I can count more things in ADVENT's military right now that was stolen from what he figured out than things of their own design. The people under him may have had the intelligence, ingenuity, or just sheer grit, but many of us couldn't wrap our heads around the bigger picture with the sheer onslaught of technology from an enemy that didn't think like any human nation we'd ever fought for or against."

"And then they found someone that would rat out where your base was, and you couldn't withstand the onslaught," Bao replies placidly. "I guess that's part of why the new base is a mobile alien ship with highly advanced cloaking technology."

"Yeah. No UN officials cracking under mind control this time." Bradford replies grimly. "In any case...as much as I want this to be an all hands on deck siege, ADVENT can probably just swarm the place with MECs if the Commander is that important to them. Volk has promised us one of his best Reapers for Operation Gatecrasher - since my team has pretty much gotten used to the current smash and grab routine, I think I'm sticking with them."

"I really hope you're not keeping Osei on that team. He's to unsub-" Bao interjects, and shakes her head when Bradford starts to speak.

"Ramirez and he have taken a liking to each other, Bao. Not only are they working together like a finely oiled machine, but I also need someone who doesn't hesitate in the split second of shooting as Rutherford does." Bao sighs, knowing Bradford has a point there. "I could take one of the other explosive experts we have, but they're not used to the team we've organized."

"Why not the Chair Retrieval Team?" Bao interrupts. "She's commanded them before."

"Because I need to be there, and aside from Cohen, I was counting on everyone else in it to have a big heart to run off with her on their own." Bradford's creases increase in his forehead - it's obvious his decision is final now. "Listen, Bao. We need a squad that's got the best skillset for this op and is very familiar with how both Shen and I work since we're both going to be issuing commands as it all goes on. Menace 1-5 is the only squad I know who ticks off all of those parameters - sure, Sokolov steals my liquor, but in the field, he's far more focused than Marvez. I could go on and on, but-"

"I get it." Bao sighs. "If anything, I'm more surprised you haven't played insubordination as a card."

"Well, you're not Covert Ops Director yet." Bradford jokes, a smile forming at the edges of his mouth again. "But you are either way if Gatecrasher fails. Those ops you've been working on, particularly operation "Blood Mask" - get the ball rolling on 'em. If I fall, the chain of command says you're next - find a power source for the Avenger. Get it flying, keep checking in with the rest of the factions. XCOM doesn't die until the last soldier that remembers it does."

"Fair enough, Central." Bao snaps to a salute. "I guess this concludes the handoff briefing, then?"

"Sure does, Director Peacock." Bradford straightens as he replies. "Vigilo confido."

\-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------  
Resistance Recording, Log 014: Date - [Redacted]  
Ethan “Ace” White

_Ace breaks out into laughter_

Bullshit! That’s complete bullshit! Does Bradford really think any of us believe that story about recovering his sweater?! Man, the things people say when they’re drunk. I mean, seriously, who would go on a mission to get Bradford’s 20-year-old XCOM sweater?! 7 people, which already is larger than most XCOM fireteams, put their lives on the line just to get a sweater. I’m sorry Bradford, but you’re drunk as hell. Not only, does the story make no sense, but where even is this sweater 7 people put their lives on to get! Where is it Central? Alright, Bradford, you can make me clean the decks of the Avenger all you want, but it will never make your story true. 

_Ace starts to calm down and stops yelling and laughing_

Alright, alright, I’m done. Sorry, I just found this hysterical. Preparations for Gatecrasher are in full force now, with Lily putting the final touches on the Avenger, me and Firebrand making sure we got the Skyranger as ready as possible for the mission, and Osei, Ramirez, and Jane going in full on training mode. Rumor has it that Osei and Ramirez are in a relationship together, but it’s just a rumor, as I haven’t seen anything to prove it. Tomorrow, we’re sending in a Reaper sent by Volk named “Dragonova” to scout out the gene therapy clinic that the commander is apparently being held in and hopefully get visual confirmation on the commander. I hope our intel is good. 

Well, the next log I make here will probably be by the time Operation Gatecrasher begins. If I don’t make another log past Operation Gatecrasher, then I’m probably dead. So, here’s my will: 

Lily gets the Firestorm, even though it isn’t even operational right now. Have fun finding someone who knows how to pilot it once you get it flying again Lily.

I keep my armor, so bury me in my combat gear, cuz it’s honestly the best looking outfit I have. 

I don’t care whoever gets the rest of my stuff, as long as they aren’t ADVENT. 

Remember, this is only if I somehow get killed during that mission. If I survive, then this will is irrelevant, so nobody better be taking my stuff if I survive. Anyone who I catch stealing my stuff is getting pushed off the Skyranger.

END LOG  
\----------------------------------------------------------------------------------  
John “Central” Bradford:

 

There are three things that I will have to add to the very small list of items banned onboard the Avenger. Those three things have been the cause of my downfall and are sitting on the counter before me. Frankly, they are the worst their factions have to offer and are unlikely to be missed. I hope.

 

The first is what the Skirmishers call ‘Elder’s Blood’. They don’t label the bottles with the alcohol content, but with their viscosity. This one is rated 20W-50, meaning that it’s thick enough to lubricate a thirty-year-old Jeep Cherokee; and they drink it straight from a plastic motor oil bottle for shits and giggles. It’s probably just as well that it contains plenty of alcohol because that means I can’t taste what else it’s made of and I’m not sure I want to know.

 

The second is the abomination the Reapers call ‘Oddka’. While I appreciate the homage to the Commander and can indeed identify it as some kind of vodka, I am a lot more apprehensive at their addition of a warty, mutated ‘zucchini’ to each bottle. I say ‘zucchini’ in quotation marks because it’s shaped like one and I’m assured that is what it is. The alternative, given their tendency to harvest alien parts for consumption, does not bear thinking about.

 

The last, innocent-looking bottle comes from the Templars - clear, sparkling Jus de Cerveau. Supposedly a mild, fruity champagne with a weirdly salty aftertaste, I was dismayed to learn that is slurped by the bowlful in the upturned helmets of slain Advent soldiers. Within minutes, the drinker acts and feels like the world’s most enlightened woodlouse as their brain melts and their third eye opens. Simultaneously. Also, pardon my French, but when a mystical, contemplative order literally names a drink ‘Brain Juice’… it’s a warning flag.

 

Mixing the three during celebrations after getting the Commander back has resulted in a period of extremely poor judgment and insobriety on my part and a series of...mission logs – I use the term _very_ generously - that contain multiple factual inaccuracies and may tarnish the professional reputation of XCOM in the eyes of our Resistance allies. Now if you all may, please excuse me to my bunk to recuperate with some aspirin.  
\-----------------------------------------------------------------------------------  
\-----------------------------------------------------------------------------------


End file.
